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LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

Theological    Seminary, 

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The  diegesis 


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CilliiyTtAN    I'lvIDENCK  SOCIETY: 
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iOCir-TTY  OP  L'NIVKh'iSAL  BENl'i^'OLraCE. 


DIEGESIS; 

BEING 

A   DISCOVERY 

,<  OP   THE 

ORIGIN,  EVIDENCES,  AND  EARLY  HISTORY 


CHRISTIANITY, 

NEVER  YET  BEFORE  OR  ELSEWHERE  SO  FULLY  AND  FAITHFULLY 
/  SET  FORTH. 


BY  THE  REV.  ROBERT  TAYLOR,  A.B.  <§•  M.R.C.S 


9to*ivrtiv  ipaaxovaav  naqaitov. — Euphrates  Philosph.  ad  Vespasian.  Imp, 
quoad  Apollonii  Tyance  Miracula:  citante  Lardnero.  Vol.  IV.  p.  261. 


»•»» 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED  BY  ABNER  KNEELAND, 

No.  14  Devonshire  Street. 

1834. 


V 


^i^*^.H^. 


DEDICATION. 

TO    THE 

MASTER,    FELLOWS,    AND    TUTORS    OF 
ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE. 


REVEREND    AND    LEARNED    SIRS, 

In  interesting  remembrance  of  the  high  sense  your 
learned  body  were  pleased  to  express  of  my  successful 
studies,  when  I  received  your  general  vote  of  thanks, 
delivered  to  me  by  the  Master  himself,  the  late  Dr. 
Craven,  for  the  honour  you  were  pleased  to  consider 
that  my  poor  talents  and  application,  in  statu  pupillary 
had  conferred  on  our  College,  which  holds  such  distin- 
guished rank  in  the  most  distinguished  University  in  the 
world  ;  I  very  respectfully  dedicate  the  Diegesis,  the 
employment  of  my  many  solitary  hours  in  an  unjust 
imprisonment,  incurred  in  the  most  glorious  cause  that 
ever  called  virtue  to  act,  or  fortitude  to  suffer.  You 
will  appreciate  (far  beyond  any  wish  of  mine  that  you 
should  seem  to  appreciate)  the  merits  of  this  work.  Your 
assistance  for  the  perfecting  of  future  editions,  by  ani- 
madversion on  any  errors  which  might  have  crept  into 


iv  DEDICATION. 

the  first ;  and  the  feeling  with  respect  to  it,  which  I 
cannot  but  anticipate,  though  it  may  never  be  expressed  ; 
will  amply  gratify  an  ambition  whose  undivided  aim  was 
to  set  forth  truth,  and  nothing  else  but  truth. 

ROBERT    TAYLOR,  A.  B. 

PRISONER. 
Oakham  Gaol,  Feb.  19,  1829. 


CONTENTS. 


PROLEGOMENA.  Page 

Importance  of  the  subject.... Criminality  of  indifference.... Dr.  Whitby's 
last  thoughts,  &c.  1 

CHAP.  I. — Definitions.... Time,  Place,  Circumstances,  Identity  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Nazareth,  necessary  to  be  established....Geography  of  Palestine  4 

CHAP.  II. — The  Christian  and  Pagan  Creeds  collated....The  Apostle's 
Creed»  a  Forgery. ...Inference  that  it  is  a  Pagan  document  applied  to  Christian 
purposes.. ..Necessity  of  examining  tlie  pretences  of  all  writings  that  lay  claim 
to  Canonical  authority  '  9 

CHAP.  III. — State  of  the  Heathen  World....Heathenism  to  be  jiidged  as 
Christians  would  wish  their  own  religion  to  be  judged.. ..The  Pacific  Age.... 
The  genius  of  Paganism  most  tolerant  and  philosophical.. ..Vast  difference 
between  the  philosophers  and  the  vulgar.. ..The  philosophers  were  Deists.. ..The 
vulgar  infinitely  credulous  1 1 

CHAP.  IV. — The  state  of  the  Jews.. ..The  Jews  the  grand  exception  to 
the  prevalence  of  universal  toleration.... They  plagiarized  Pagan  fables  into 
their  pretended  divine  theology.... Were  as  gross  idolaters  as  the  Heathens.... 
Truth  of  Judaism  not  essential  to  the  truth  of  Christianity.... The  Pharisees.... 
The  Sadducees....The  Cabbala.. ..The  Jews  had  no  notion  of  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  ;  while  the  Heathens  had  more  practical  faith  therein,  than  any 
Christians  of  the  present  day  20 

CHAP.  V. — State  of  Philosophy.... A  general  prevailing  debility  of  the 
hmnan  understanding.. ..Vitiation  of  morals.... Destruction  of  documents.. ..Max- 
ims of  deceiving  the  vulgar,  and  perpetuating  ignorance,  approved  by  St. 
Paul... .King's  College,  London.... Gnosticism.. ..Systems  of  philosophy  30 

CHAP.  VI. — Admissions  of  Christian  writers.. ..Deficiency  of  evidence.... 
Christiana  before  the  Christian  era.... Christian  frauds. ...Christian  scriptures  not 
in  the  hands  of  the  laity.. ..Christianity  and  Paganism  hardly  distinguishable.... 
Miraculous  powers,  dreams,  visions,  charms,  spells.... Name  of  Jesus  a  spell         38 

CHAP.  VII. — Of  the  Essenes  or  Therapeuts.... Differences  of  opinion  with 
respect  to  them.. ..Every  thing  of  Christianity  is  of  Egyptian  origin.... Apostolic 
and  Apotactic  monks.. ..The  Therapeuts  were  Christians  before  the  Augustan 
era.... Eclectics.... The  forgery  of  the  gospel  ascribed  to  mongrel  Jews  58 

CHAP.  VIII. — The  Christian  scriptures,  doctrines,  discipline  and  ecclesi- 
astical polity,  long  anterior  to  the  period  assigned  as  that  of  the  birth  of 
Christ.. ..Recapitulation.. ..An  original  translation  of  the  famous  16th  chapter 
of  the  2nd  book  of  Eusebins's  Ecclesiastical  History  66 

CHAP.  IX. — Of  Philo  and  his  testimony.. ..Sum  of  his  admissions  74 

CHAP.  X. — Corollaries.. ..Eusebius.... Sufficient  guarantee  for  the  text  of 
Philo. ...Conflicting  opinions.. ..Severe  sarcasm  of  Gibbon. ...The  demonstration 
absolute  that  the  monks  of  Egypt  were  the  authors  of  the  gospels.  „  Mr. 
Evanaon's  perplexities  relieved.. ..Alexandria  the  cradle  of  Christianity.... Its 
■low  progress.... Episcopal  insolence  of  DionyBiu3....St.  Mark,  a  monk  76 


VI  CONTENTS. 

Page 
CHAP.  XI. — Corroborations  of  the  evidence  arising  from  the  admissions 
of  Eusebius,  in  the  New  Testament  itself  86 

CHAP.  Xn. — References  to  the  monldsh  or  Therapeutan  doctrines  to  be 
traced  in  the  New  Testament.. ..John  the  Baptist,  a  monk.. ..Monkish  rules  in 
the  New  Testament.. ..Apollos,  a  Therapeut.... Vagabond  Jews.. ..The  New 
Testament  entirely  allegorical.... The  English  translation  of  it,  Protestantizes 
in  order  to  keep  its  monkish  origin  out  of  sight. ...St.  Paul's  account  of  the 
resurrection  wholly  ditierent  from  that  of  the  Evangelists.... The  conclusion  90 

CHAP.  XIII. — On  the  claims  of  the  scriptures  of  the  New  Testament  to 
be  considered  as  genuine  and  authentic. ...Preliminary. ...The  authenticity  of 
St.  Paul's  epistles,  and  of  so  much  of  his  history  (miracles  excepted)  as  is 
contained  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  affords  no  presumption  m  favour  of  the 
Canonical  gospels.... The  canon  of  the  New  Testament  not  settled  even  so  late 
as  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century.. ..Mode  of  argument  to  be  observed  in  this 
DiEGESIS  109 

CHAP.  XIV. — Canons  of  criticism.. ..Data  of  criticism  to  be  applied  in 
judging  the  comparative  claims  of  the  apocryphal  and  canonical  gospels.... 
Corollaries.... Dr.  Lardner's  table  of  times  and  places  113 

CHAP.  XV. — Of  the  four  gospels  in  general.. ..Confession  of  the  forgery 
of  the  gospels,  by  Faustus.... Twenty  objections  to  be  surmounted.. ..Order  for 
a  general  alteration  of  the  gospels  by  Anastasius....  Alterations  by  Lanfranc        114 

CHAP  XVI. — Of  the  origin  of  our  three  first  canonical  gospels.... The 
great  plagiarism  gradually  discovered.. ..Le  Clerc....Dr.  Sender.. ..Lessing's 
hypothesis,  Niemeyer's,  Halfeld's,  Beausobre's,  Bishop  Marsh's.... The  Die- 
GEsis....The  Gnomologue  119 

CHAP.  XVII. — Of  St.  John's  gospel  in  particular....Dr.  Semler's  hypo- 
thesis....Evanson.... Bretschneider....l'alsehood  of  gospel  geography,  of  gospel 
dates,  of  gospel  statistics,  of  gospel  phraseology  130 

CHAP.  XVIII.— Ultimate  result.... The  monks  of  Egypt,  the  fabricators  of 
the  whole  Christian  system  136 

CHAP.  XIX.— Resemblances  of  the  Pagan  and  Christian  theology.... 
Augury  and  bishops.. ..iEsculapius.... Hercules.. ..Adonis.. ..Parallel  passages  in 
Cicero  and  the  New  Testament.... Royal  priest3....Subordinate  clergy.... Priests 
of  Cybele.... Parasites  or  domestic  chaplains.. ..Conversion  from  Paganism  to 
Christianity  brought  about  entirely  by  a  transfer  of  property  139 

CHAP.  XX. — iEsculapius  and  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  figment  of  imagina- 
tion....Miracles  of  ^sculapius  better  authenticated  than  those  of  Jesus.... 
iEsculapius  distinguished  by  the  very  epithets  afterwards  ascribed  to  Jesus      -  148 

CHAP.  XXI. — Hercules  and  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  figment  of  imagina- 
tion,...Dr.  Parkhurst's  anger  at  those  who  doubt  that  Hercules  was  a  divinely 
intended  type  of  Jesus  Christ.... Pagan  form  of  swearing.. ..Superior  moral 
virtue  of  Turks  ^  154 

CHAP.  XXII. — Adonis.... Ridiculous  literal  renderings  of  the  Psalms.... 
Jehovah  and  Adonis  used  indifferently  as  common  names  of  the  same  deity.... 
Words  of  our  Easter  hymn  used  at  the  festival  of  the  Adonia  158 

CHAP.  XXIII. — The  mystical  sacrifice  of  the  Pha5nician3....A  draft  of  the 
whole  Christian  system.. ..Archbishop  Magee,  one  of  the  Author's  persecutors   168 

CHAP.  XXIV. — Chrishna,  of  the  Brahmins,  the  original  Jesus  Christ.... 
The  absolute  identity  of  Chrishna  and  Christ,  triumphant  in  the  complete 
overthrow  of  all  the  attempts  of  Drs.  Bentley  and  Smith,  Beard,  and  othera 
to  disprove  it.... Dishonest  engagement  of  Christian  Missionaries  168 

CHAP.  XXV.— Apollo,  Jesus  Christ  the  Egyptian  version  of  the  Indian 
Christ  •     180 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

Page 

CHAP.  XXVI.— Mercury,  Jesus  Christ....The  Word,  Jesus  Christ....Ame- 
lius  proves  their  identity  183 

CHAP.  XXVn.— Bacchus,  Jesus  Christ.. ..His  name  Yes.... Bacchus  ad- 
dressed in  the  very  words  of  Christian  worship... .A  personification  of  the 
Sun.. ..The  Bacchanalia  identical  with  Christian  sanctification  186 

CHAP.  XXVni. — Prometheus,  Jesus  Christ.. ..The  Grecian  version  of 
the  Indian  Chrishna,  identical  with  the  Christian  god.  Providence.. ..The 
preternatural  darkness  at  the  Crucifixion  a  palpable  falsehood,  derived  from 
.^schylus's  tragedy  of  Prometheus  Bound  191 

CHAP.  XXIX. — The  Sign  of  the  Cross  entirely  Pagan. ...Found  in  the 
temple  of  the  god  Serapis..  ..The  high  priests  of  Serapis  known  and  distin- 
guished by  the  title  of  Bishops  of  Christ  198 

CHAP.  XXX. — The  Tauribolia....The  whole  theory  and  practice  of  the 
Cluistian  doctrine  of  Regeneration  207 

CHAP.  XXXI. — Baptism.... The  Baptists  an  effeminate  and  debauched 
order  of  Pagan  priests.... Astrological  character  of  John  the  Baptist.. ..Of  St. 
Thomas... .The  New  Testament  entii-ely  allegorical  208 

CHAP.  XXXII.— The  Eleuslnian  Mysteries  entirely  the  same  as  the 
Christian  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper....Bacchus,  as  the  Sun,  the  common 
object  of  worship  in  both  212 

CHAP.  XXXIII.— Pythagoras,  the  type  of  the  human  or  man-Jesus.... 
The  Pythagorean  Metempsychosis  the  best  system  of  supematuralism  217 

CHAP.  XXXIV. — Archbishop  Tillotson's  Confession  of  the  identity  of 
Christianity  and  Paganism  224 

CHAP.  XXXV. — Resemblance  of  Pagan  and  Christian  forms  of  worship 
....The  White  Surplice.... The  Baptismal  Font....Nundination  and  Infant  Bap- 
tism....The  old  stories  of  the  ancient  Paganism  adopted  into  Christianity..., 
Tiie  Pantheon.. ..Similar  inscriptions  in  Pagan  Temples  and  Christian  Church- 
es....Saints  and  Martyrs  that  never  existed  229 

CHAP.  XXXVI.— Specimens  of  Pagan  piety....The  first  Orphic  Hymn  to 
Prothyra!a....Hymn  to  Diana.. ..The  Creed  and  Golden  Verses  of  Pythagoras.... 
The  Morals  of  Confucius  239 

CHAP.  XXXVII.— Charges  brought  against  Christianity  by  its  early 
adversaries,  and  the  Christian  manner  of  answering  those  charges.... The 
Doctrine  of  Manes  and  his  History.. ..Demonstration  that  no  such  person  as 
Jesus  Christ  ever  existed.... Admission  of  Bishop  Herbert  Marsh.... Admissions 
to  the  same  eifect  of  the  early  Fathers  244 

CHAP.  XXXVIII. — Christian  Evidences  adduced  from  Christian  Writ- 
ings....Dorotheus'  Lives  of  the  Apostles.... Origin  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
Cephas,  Judas,  Mark,  Luke,  Paul. ...That  there  is  no  difference  between  the 
Popish  legends  and  the  canonical  Acts  of  the  Apostles....That  no  such  persons 
as  the  twelve  Apostles  ever  existed  260 

CHAP.  XXXIX.— The  Arguments  of  Martyrdom....That  Martyrdonn  is 
not  the  kind  of  evidence  which  we  have  a  right  to  expect....The  impropriety 
of  the  argument  as  it  respects  the  character  of  God.. ..The  impropriety  of  the 
argument  us  it  respects  the  character  of  Man.... That  the  argument  of  martyr-  ^ 
dom  is  absolutely  not  true.... Specimens  of  Martyrology  274 

CHAP.  XL.— The  Apostolic  Fathers... .St.  Barnabas,  St.  Clement,  St. 
Hexmas,  St.  Polycarp,  St.  Ignatius.. ..Correspondence  of  Ignatius  with  the 
Virgin  Mary....Result.... Perfect  Parallel  of  Pagan  and  Christian  Mysteries  287 

CHAP.  XLL— The  Fathers  of  the  Second  Century. ...Papias  Quadratus, 
Aristides,  Hegesippus,  Justin  Martyr,  Mehto,  St.  Irenajus,  Panteenus,  Clemens, 
Alexandrihus,  Tertullian  304 


VUl  CONTENTS. 

Page 

CHAP.  XLIL— The  Fathers  of  the  Third  Century.. ..Origen...,Thedoloroni 
lamentation  of  Origen....His  answer  to  Celsus,  St.  Gregory  Thaumatmgns,  St 
Cyprian.  328 

CHAP.  XLHI.— The  Fathers  of  the  Fourth  Century....ConstantLQe  the 
Great. ...IMotives  of  his  Conversion. ...The  Evidences  of  Christianity  as  they 
appeared  to  Constantine.  His  oration  to  the  clergy. ...Eusebius,  the  great 
Ecclesiastical  Historian. ...The  holy  dog.  346 

CHAP.  XLIV. — Testimony  of  Heretics,  who  denied  Christ's  humanity.... 
Cordon,  Marcion,  Leucius,  Apelles,  Faustus....Who  denied  Christ's  divinity.... 
Who  denied  Christ's  Crucifixion.. ..Who  denied  Christ's  Resurrection  364 

CHAP.  XLV.— The  whole  of  the  external  evidence  of  the  Christian  Reli- 
gion....The  testimony  of  Lucian,  of  Phlegon....The  passage  of  Macrobius.... 
Publius  Lentulas....The  Veronica  handkerchief  ...The  testimony  of  Pilate.. ..A 
coincident  passage  from  Arnobius....The  passage  of  Josephus....The  celebrated 
inscription  to  Nero.. ..Similar  Inscriptions.. ..Tacitus,  Suetonius,  Pliny,  Epicte- 
tus,  Plutarch,  Juvenal,  Emp.  Adrian,  Emp.  Aurelius  Antoninus,  Martial,  Apu- 
leius,  Lucian.. ..List  of  Ancient  writers.  .        376 

APPENDIX. — Containing  an  account  of  the  various  known  M.S.  copies  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  the  source  of  the  present  received  copy.... Various 
versions,  Greek  editions,  and  translations,  of  the  New  Testament.. ..Spurious 
passages  in  ditto. ...False  representations.. ..Abbreviations.. ..Dates  of  the  reigns 
of  the  Roman  Emperors.... Names  and  order  of  the  succession  of  the  Christum 
fathers  and  heretics.... Ecclesiastical  Historians  and  councils.... Sketch  of  the 
general  councils. ...Present  ecclesiastical  revenues... .Numerical  extent  of  Christi- 
anity....Authorities  adduced  in  this  Diegesis.... Texts  of  Scripture  brought  into 
illustration  in  this  Diegesia.  416 


PROLEGOMETSA. 


ON  all  hands  'tis  admitted  that  the  Christian  religion  is 
matter  of  most  serious  importance  :  it  is  so,  if  it  be  truth, 
because  in  that  truth  a  law  of  faith  and  conduct  measuring- 
out  to  us  a  propriety  of  sentiment  and  action,  whi^h  would 
otherwise  not  be  incumbent  upon  us,  is  propounded  to 
our  observance  in  this  life  ;  and  eternal  consequences  of 
happiness  or  of  misery,  are  at  issue  upon  our  observance 
or  neglect  of  that  law. 

To  deny  to  the  Christian  religion  such  a  degree  of  im- 
portance, is  not  only  to  laimch  the  keenest  sarcasm  against 
its  whole  apparatus  of  supernatural  phenomena,  but  ia 
virtually  to  withdraw  its  claims  and  pretensions  alto- 
gether. For  if  men,  after  having  received  a  divine  reve- 
lation, are  brought  to  know  no  more  than  what  they  knew 
before,  nor  are  obliged  to  do  any  thing  which  other- 
wise they  would  not  have  been  equally  obliged  to  do  ; 
nor  have  any  other  consequences  of  their  conduct  to  hope 
or  fear,  than  otherwise  woiild  have  been  equally  to  be 
hoped  or  feared  ;  then  doth  the  divine  revelation  reveal 
nothing,  and  all  the  pretence  thereto,  is  driven  into  an 
admission  of  being  a  misuse  of  language.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Christian  religion  is  of  scarce  less  importance, 
if  it  be  false  ;  because,  no  wise  and  good  man  could  pos- 
sibly be  indifferent  or  unconcerned  to  the  prevalence  of 
an  extensive  and  general  delusion.  No  good  and  amiable 
heart  could  for  a  moment  think  of  yielding  its  assent  to  so 
monstrous  an  idea,  as  the  supposition  that  error  could 
possibly  be  useful,  that  imposture  could  be  beneficial, 
that  the  heart  could  be  set  right  by  setting  the  under- 
standing wrong,  that  men  were  to  he  made  rational  by 
being  deceived,  and  rendered  just  and  virtuous  by  cre- 
dulity and  ignorance. 

To  be  in  error  one's  self,  is  a  misfortune  ;  and  \^  it  be 
such  an  error  as  mightily  affects  our  peace  of  mind,  it  is 
a  very  grievous  misfortune  ;  to  be  the  cause  of  error  to 
others,  either  by  deceiving  them  ourselves,  or  by  conniv- 
ance, and  furtherance  of  the  councils  and  machinations 
by  which  we  see  that  they  are  deceived,  is  a  crime  ;  it  is 
a  most  cruel  triumph  over  nature's  weakness,  a  most 
2 


Z  PROLEGOMENA. 

barbarous  wrong  done  to  our  brother  man  ;  it  is  the  kind 
of  wrong  which  we  should  most  justly  and  keenly  resent, 
could  we  be  sensible  of  its  being  put  upon  ourselves. 

A  Nero  playing  upon  his  harp,  in  view  of  a  city  in 
flames,  is  a  less  frightful  picture  than  that  of  the  soli- 
tary philosopher  basking  in  the  serenity  of  his  own 
speculations,  but  indifferent  to  the  ignorance  he  could 
remove,  the  error  he  could  correct,  or  the  misery  he  could 
relieve. 

As  then  there  is  no  falsehood  more  apparently  false, 
and  more  morally  mischievous,  than  to  suppose  that  error 
can  be  useful,  and  delusion  conducive  to  happiness  and 
virtue  :  so,  there  can  be  no  place  for  the  medium  or  al- 
ternative of  indifference  between  the  truth  or  falsehood  of 
the  Christian  religion.  Every  argument  that  could  show 
it  to  be  a  blessing  to  mankind,  being  true,  must  in  like 
degree  tend  to  demonstrate  it  to  be  a  curse  and  a  mischief, 
being  false. 

If  it  be  true,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  God,  its  all  wise 
and  benevolent  author,  must  have  given  to  it  such  suf- 
ficient evidence  and  proofs  of  its  truth,  that  every  crea- 
ture whom  he  hath  endued  with  rational  faculties,  \ipon 
the  honest  and  conscientious  exercise  of  those  faculties, 
must  be  able  to  arrive  at  a  perfect  and  satisfactory  con- 
viction. To  suppose  that  there  either  is,  or  by  any  pos- 
sibility could  be,  a  natural  disinclination  or  repugnancy 
in  man's  mind,  to  receive  the  truths  of  revelation,  is  "to 
charge  God  foolishly  ;"  as  if,  when  he  had  the  making  of 
man's  mind,  and  the  making  of  his  revelation  also,  he 
had  not  known  how  to  adapt  the  one  to  the  other  ;  nor 
is  it  less  than  to  open  the  door  to  every  conceivable  ab- 
surdity and  imposture,  and  to  give  to  the  very  grossness 
and  palpability  of  falsehood,  the  advantage  over  evidence, 
truth,  and  reason.  If  we  are  to  conceive  that  any  thing 
may  be  the  more  likely  to  be  true,  in  proportion  to  its  ap- 
pearing more  palpably  and  demonstrably  false,  and  that 
God  can  possibly  have  intended  us  to  embrace  that^  which 
he  has  so  constituted  our  minds,  that  they  must  naturally 
suspect  and  dislike  it,  why  so,  then,  all  principles  and 
tests  of  truth  and  evidence  are  abolished  at  once  ;  we  may 
as  well  take  poison  for  our  food,  and  rush  on  what  our 
nature  shudders  at,  for  safety. 

To  suppose  that  belief  or  unbelief  can  either  be  a  virtue 
or  a  crime,  or  any  man  morally  better  or  worse  for  belief 
or  unbelief,  is  to  assume  that  man  has  a  faculty  which 


PROLEGOMENA.  3 

we  see  and  feel  that  he  has  not;*  to  wit, — a  power  of 
making'  himself  heUeve,  of  being  convinced  when  he  is 
not  convinced,  and  not  convinced  when  he  is :  which  is  a 
being-  and  not  being  at  the  same  time,  the  sheer  end  of 
"all  discourse  of  reason." 

To  suppose  that  a  suitable  state  of  mind,  and  certain 
previous  dispositions  of  meekness,  humility,  and  teacha- 
bleness are  necessary  to  fit  us  for  the  reception  of  divine 
truth,  as  the  soil  must  be  prepared  to  receive  the  seed, 
is  in  like  manner  to  argue  preposterously,  and  to  open  the 
door  to  the  rec^iption  of  falsehood  as  well  as  of  truth  ;  as* 
the  prepared  ground  will  fertilize  the  tares  as  prolifically 
as  the  wheat,  and  is  indifferent  to  either. 

And  in  proportion  as  the  state  of  mind  so  supposed  to 
be  necessary,  is  supposed  to  be  an  easily  yielding,  readily 
consenting,  and  feebly  resisting  state ;  the  more  facile  is 
it  to  the  practices  of  imposture  and  cunning,  and  the  less 
worthy  conquest  of  evidence  and  reason.  The  property 
of  truth  is  not,  surely,  to  wait  till  men  are  in  right  frames 
of  mind  to  receive  it,  but  to  find  them  wrong,  and  to  set 
them  right ;  to  find  them  ignorant  and  to  make  them  wise ; 
not  created  by  the  mind,  but  itself  the  mind's  creator  ;  it 
is  the  sovereign  that  ascends  the  throne,  and  not  the 
throne  that  makes  the  sovereign  ;  where  it  reigns  not, 
right  dispositions  cannot  be  found,  and  where  it  reigns, 
they  cannot  be  wanting. 

The  highest  honour  we  can  pay  to  truth,  is  to  show  our 
confidence  in  it,  and  our  desire  to  have  it  sifted  and  ana- 
lyzed, by  how  rough  a  process  soever  ;  as  being  well  as- 
sured that  it  is  that  alone  that  can  abide  all  tests,  and  which, 
like  the  genuine  gold,  will  come  out  all  the  purer  from  the 
fiercer  fire. 

While  there  are  bad  hearted  men  in  the  world,  and 
those  who  wish  to  make  falsehood  pass  for  truth,  they 
will  ever  discover  themselves  and  their  counsel,  by  their 
impatience  of  contradiction,  their  hatred  of  those  who 
differ  from  them,  their  wish  to  suppress  inquiry,  and 
their  bitter  resentment,  when  what  they  call  truth,  has  not 
been  handled  with  the  delicacy  and  niceness,  which  it  was 
never  any  thing  else  but  falsehood  that  required  or 
needed. 

All  the  mighty  question  now  before  us  requires,  is,  at- 
tention and  ability  ;  without  any  presentiment,  prejudica- 

*  This  tliought  is  Dr.  Whitby's  ;  who,  after  publisliing  his  voluminous  Com- 
mentary on  tlie  Scriptures,  pubhshed  this  among  his  "  Last  Thoughts." 


4  DEFINITIONS. 

tion,  or  prepossession  whatever  ;  but  with  a  perfect  and 
equal  willingness  to  come  to  such  conclusion  as  the  evi- 
dence of  moral  demonstration  shall  offer  to  our  conviction, 
and  to  be  guided  only  by  such  canons  or  rules  of  evidence 
as  determine  our  convictions  with  respect  to  all  other 
questions. 


CHAPTER  I. 


DEFINITIONS. 


By  the  Christian  religion,  is  to  be  understood  the  whole 
system  of  theology  fovuid  in  the  Bibfe,  as  consisting  of 
the  two  volumes  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament ;  and  as 
that  system  now  is,  and  generally  has  been  understood, 
by  the  many,  or  general  body  of  that  large  community  of 
persons  professing  and  calling  themselves  Christians. 

That  this  system  of  theology  might  not  be  confounded 
with  previously  existing  pretences  to  divine  revelation, 
or  held  to  be  a  mere  enthusiasm  or  conceit  of  imagina- 
tion, its  best  and  ablest  advocates  challenge  for  it,  his- 
torical data,  and  affect  to  trace  it  up  to  its  origination  in 
time,  place,  and  circumstance,  as  all  other  historical  facts 
may  be  traced. 

Upon  this  ground,  the  doctrines  become  facts,  and  we 
are  no  longer  called  on  to  believe,  but  to  investigate  and 
examine.  We  are  permitted,  fearlessly  to  apply  the  rules 
of  criticism  and  evidence,  by  which  we  measure  the  credi- 
bility of  all  other  facts. 

The  time  assigned  as  that  of  the  historical  origination 
of  Christianity,  is,  the  three  or  four  first  centuries  of  the 
prevalence  and  notoriety  of  a  system  of  theology  under 
that  name  ;  reckoning  from  the  reign  of  the  Roman  Em- 
peror Augustus,  to  its  ultimate  and  complete  establishment 
under  Constantine  the  Great. 

Any  continuance  of  its  history  after  this  time,  is 
unnecessary  to  the  purpose  of  an  investigation  of  its 
evidences  ;  as  any  proof  of  its  existence  before  this  time, 
would  certainly  be  fatal  to  the  origination  challenged 
for  it. 

The  place  assigned  as  that  of  the  historical  origination 
of  this  religion,  is,  the  obscure  and  remote  province  of 
Judea,  which  is  about  equal  in  extent  of  territory  to  the 


DEFINITIONS.  5 

principality  of  Wales,  being-  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles 
in  length,  from  Dan  to  Beersheba,  and  forty  six  miles  in 
breadth,  from  Joppa  to  Bethlehem,  between  35  and  36 
degrees  east  long-itude  from  Greenwich,  and  between  31 
and  33  degrees  north  latitude,  in  nearest  coasting  upon 
the  eastern  extremity  of  the  Mediterranean  sea,  and  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Egypt,  Arabia,  Phoenicia,  and  Syria.* 

The  circumstances  assigned  as  those  of  the  historical 
basis  of  this  religion,  are,  that  in  the  reigns  of  the  Roman 
Emperors  Augustus  and  Tiberius,  and  in  the  province  of 
Judea,  a  Jew,  of  the  lower  order  of  that  loAvest  and  most, 
barbarous  of  all  subjects  pf  the  Roman  empire,  arose 
into  notoriety  among  his  countrymen,  from  the  circum^ 
stance  of  leaving  his  ordinary  avocation  as  a  labouring 
mechanic,  and  travelling  on  foot  from  village  to  village  in 
that  little  province,  afiecting  to  cure  diseases  ;  that  he 
preached  the  doctrines,  or  some  such,  as  are  ascribed  to 
him  in  the  New  Testament  ;  and  that  he  gave  himself  out 
to  be  some  extraordinary  personage  :  but  failing  in  his 
attempt  to  gain  popularity,  he  was  convicted  as  a  male- 
factor, and  publicly  executed,  under  the  presidency  and 
authority  of  the  Roman  procurator,  Pontius  Pilate.  This 
extraordinary  person  was  called  Jesus  or  Joshua,  a  name 
of  ordinary  occurrence  among  the  Jewish  clan  ;  '  and 
from  the  place  of  his  nativity,  or  of  his  more  general 
residence,  he  is  designated  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth  :  the 
obscurity  of  his  parentage,  or  his  equivocal  legitimacy 
having  left  him  without  any  name  or  designation-  of  his 
family  or  descent. f 

These  are  circumstances  which  fall  entirely  within  the 
scale  of  rational  probability,  and  draw  for  no  more  than  an 
ordinary  and  indifferent  testimony  of  history,  to  command 
the  mind's  assent.  The  mere  relation  of  any  historian, 
living  near  enough  to  the  time  supposed,  to  guarantee  the 
probability  of  his  competent  information  on  the  subject, 
would  have  been  entitled  to  our  acquiescence.  We  could 
have  had  no  reason  to  deny  or  to  doubt,  Avhat  such  an 
historian  could  have  had  no  motive  to  feign  or  to  exag- 

*  "  The  geography  of  Palestine  lies  in  a  narrow  compass.  It  comprises  a  tract 
of  country  of  nearly  200  miles  in  length,  in  its  full  extent,  from  the  river  of  Egypt 
south  of  Gaza  to  the  furthest  bounds  towards  Damascus,  and  perhaps  of  more  thari 
100  in  breadth,  including  Perea,  from  the  Mediterranean  eastward  to  the  desert 
Arabia." — Elsley. 

t  Being,  as  was  supposed,  the  son  of  Joseph,  Luke  iv.  23.  It  was  no  mat- 
ter of  supposition  that  his  mother  had  yielded  to  the  embraces  of  '7X  '^2i  Gabriel  ; 
that  is,  literally,  the  man  of  God,  Luke  i.  38. 

2* 


.M^ 


6  DEFINITIONS. 

gerate.  The  proof  even  to  demonstration,  of  these  cir- 
cumstances, would  constitute  no  step  or  advance  towards 
the  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  rehgion  ;  while  the 
ahsence  of  a  sufficient  degree  of  evidence  to  render  even 
these  circumstances  unquestionable,  must,  a  fortiori^  be 
fatal  to  the  credibility  of  the  still  less  credible  circum- 
stances founded  upon  them. 

If  there  be  no  absolute  certainty  that  such  a  man  ex- 
isted, still  less  can  there  be  any  proof  that  such  and  such 
were  his  actions,  as  have  been  ascribed  to  him.  Those  who 
might  have  reasons  or  prejudices  to  induce  them  to  deny 
that  such  and  such  were  the  actions  ascribed  to  such  a  per- 
son, could  have  none  to  deny  or  to  conceal  the  mere  fact 
of  his  existence  as  a  man.  To  this  eftect,  the  testimony 
of  enemies  is  as  good  as  that  of  friends.  One  competent 
historian,  (if  such  can  be  adduced),  speaking  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  as  an  impostor,  would  be  as  unexceptionable  a 
witness  to  the  fact  of  his  existence,  as  one  who  should 
assert  every  thing  that  hath  ever  been  asserted  of  him. 

The  authentic  and  unsophisticated  testimony  of  Celsus, 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  wrought  miracles  by  the  power  of 
magic,  though  it  be  no  proof  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
wrought  miracles  by  the  power  of  magic,  and  no  proof 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  wrought  miracles,  yet  as  far  as  it 
avails,  it  avails  to  the  proof  of  the  conviction  of  Celsus, 
that  such  a  person  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth  really  existed.* 
We  emphatically  say  such  a  person  q^  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ; 
because  the  name  Jesus  being  as  common  among  the  Jews, 
as  John  or  Thomas  among  Christians  ;  nothing  hinders 
but  there  might  have  been  some  dozen,  score,  or  hun- 
dred Jesuses  of  Nazareth  ;  so  that  proof  (if  it  could  be 
adduced)  of  the  existence  of  any  one  of  these,  unless 
coupled  with  an  accompanying  proof  that  that  one  was 
the  Jesus  of  Nazareth  distinguished  from  all  others  of  that 
designation,  by  the  circumstance  of  having  been  "cruci- 
fied under  Pontius  Pilate,"  would  be  no  proof  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospel,  of  whose  identity  the 
essential  predicates  are,  not  alone  the  name  Jesus^  and 
the  place  Mazareth^  but  the  characteristic  distinction  of 
crucifiocion. 

Still  less,  and  further  off  than  ever  from  any  absolute 
identification  with  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospel,  is  the  regal 

*  It  must  never  be  forgotten,  that  we  liave  no  testimony  of  Celsus,  but  only 
the  teatimony  which  Origen  has  fathered  on  him  :  which  is  a  very  different 
thing. 


DEFINITIONS.  7 

title  Christ,*  or  the  .Anointed,  which  was  not  only  held 
by  all  the  kings  of  Israel,  but  so  commonly  assumed  by 
all  sorts  of  impostors,  conjurors,  and  pretenders  to  super- 
natural communications,  that  the  very  claim  to  it,  is  in 
the  gospel  itself,  considered  as  an  indication  of  impos- 
ture, and  a  reason  and  rule  for  withholding  our  credence  : 
there  being  no  rule  in  that  gospel  more  distinct,  than,  that 
"  if  an  J/  man  shall  say  to  you,  /o,  here  is  Christ,  or  lo,  he  is  there, 
believe  him  not,''^  Mark  xiv.  21.  No  reason  more  explicit, 
than,  that  '■'■many  false  Christs  should  arise,''''  Matt.  xxiv.  24, 
Luke  xxi.  8 ;  and  no  statement  more  definitive,  than  that, 
when  one  of  his  immediate  disciples  applied  that  title  to 
the  Jesus  of  the  gospel,  he  himself  disclaimed  it,  "  and 
straitly  charged  and  commanded  them  to  tell  no  man  that  thing,''"' 
Luke  ix.  21, f  Matt.  xvi.  29. 

So  that  should  authentic  and  probable  history  present 
us  with  a  record  of  the  existence  of  a  Christ,  pretending 
to  a  supernatural  commission  :  we  should  have  but  that 
one  chance  for,  against  the  many  chances  against  the 
identity  of  such  a  Christ  with  the  person  of  the  Jesus  of 
Nazareth. 

Should  authentic  history  present  us  even  with  a  Christ 
who  was  CRUCIFIED,  though  such  a  record  would  cer- 
tainly come  within  the  list  of  very  striking  coincidences, 
in  relation  to  the  evangelical  story  ;  yet  as  we  certainly 
know  that  Christ  was  one  of  the  most  ordinary  titles 
that  religious  impostors  were  wont  to  assume,  and  Cru- 
cifixion, an  ordinary  punishment  consequent  on  detected 
imposture,  a  Christ  crucified,  would  by  no  means  iden- 
tify the  "  Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified,''''  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament. 

The  testimony  of  Tacitus  however,  which  we  shall 
consider  in  its  chronological  order,  purports  to  be  more 
specific  than  this,  and  to  come  up  nearly  to  the  fujl 
amount  of  the  predications  necessary  to  establish  the  iden- 
tification required  "  Christ,  who  was  put  to  death  under  the 
Procurator    Pontius    Pilate.''''^      This     is     either    genuine, 

*  Even  the  heathen  Prince  Cyrus,  is  called,  by  Isaiah,  the  Christ  of  God. 
— ^Isaiah  xlv.  1. 

t  This  is  not  the  usual  sense  given  to  these  words,  but  it  is  borne  out  by  his 
questions  to  the  pharisees,  "What  think  ye  of  Christ?  whose  son  is  he?" 
Matt.  xxii.  42.  A  mode  of  speaking  that  no  man  could  use  with  reference  to 
himself. 

i  It  wants  only  the  addition  of  the  name,  Jesus.  It  is  however  hardly 
likely  that  two  claimants  of  the  name  Christ,  should  have  been  crucified  under 
the  same  governor. 


8  DEFINITIONS. 

authentic,  and  valid  evidence  to  the  full  extent  to  which 
it  purports  to  extend  ;  or  it  is  the  forgery  of  a  wonderfully- 
adroit  and  well-practised  sophisticator. 

The  extent  of  its  purport  will  be  matter  of  subsequent 
investigation.  Our  respect  for  it,  in  the  present  stage  of 
our  process,  stands  in  guarantee  of  our  willingness  and 
desire  to  receive  and  admit  whatever  bears  the  character 
of  that  sort  of  rational  evidence,  which  is  admitted  on  all 
other  questions  ;  while  we  lay  to  the  line  and  the  plummet, 
that  irremeable  and  everlasting  border  of  distinction  that 
separates  the  bright  focus  of  truth  and  certainty,  from  the 
misty  indistinctness  and  confusion  of  fallacy  and  fable. 

But  farther  oft",  even  to  an  infinite  remoteness  from  any 
designation  or  reference  to  the  person  of  the  crucified 
Jesus,  are  the  complimentary  and  idolatrous  epithets  of 
honour  or  of  worship,  which  the  heathen  nations,  from  the 
remotest  antiquity,  were  in  the  habit  of  applying  to  their 
gods,  demigods,  and  heroes,  who  from  the  various  services 
which  they  were  believed  to  have  rendered  to  mankind, 
were  called  saviours  of  the  world,  redeemers  of  mankind, 
physicians  of  souls,  &c.,  and  addressed  by  every  one  of 
the  doxologies,  even,  not  excepting  one  of  those  which 
Christian  piety  has  since  confined  and  appropriated  to  the 
Jewish  Jesus. 

Nor  are  any  of  the  supernatural,  or  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances, which  either  loitli  truth  or  without  it,  are 
asserted  or  believed  of  the  man  of  Nazareth,  at  all  cha- 
racteristic or  distinctive  of  that  person,  from  any  of  the 
innumerable  host  of  heaven-descended,  virgin-born,  won- 
der-working sons  of  God,  of  whom  the  like  supernatural 
and  extraordinary  circumstances  were  asserted  and  be- 
lieved, with  as  great  faith,  and  with  as  little  reason. 

To  have  been  the  whole  world's  desideratum,  to  .have 
been  foretold  by  a  long  series  of  undoubted  prophecies, 
to  have  been  attested  by  a  glorious  display  of  indisputable 
miracles,  to  have  revealed  the  most  mystical  doctrines, 
to  have  acted  as  never  man  acted,  and  to  have  suHered  as 
never  man  suffered,  were  among  the  most  ordinary  cre- 
dentials of  the  gods  and  goddesses  with  which  Olympus 
groaned. 

As  our  business  in  this  treatise  is,  with  stubborn  fact 
and  absolute  evidence,  I  shall  subjoin  so  much  of  the 
Christian  creed  as  is  .absolutely  and  imqucstionably  of 
Pagan  origin,  and  which,  though  not  found  as  put  toge- 
ther in  this  precise  formulary,  is  certainly  to  be  deduced 


CHRISTIAN    AND    PAGAN    CREEDS    COLLATED.  S 

from  previously  existing  Pagan  writings.  That  only, 
which  could  not,  or  would  not,  have  expressed  the 
fair  sense  of  any  form  of  Pagan  faith,  can  be  pecu- 
liarly Christian.  That  only  which  the  Christian  finds 
that'  he  has  to  say,  of  which  a  worshipper  of  the  gods 
could  not  have  said  the  same  or  the  like  before  him,  is 
Christianity. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    AND    PAGAN    CREEDS    COLLATED. 


The  Christiaii  Creed. 

1.  I  believe  in  God  the  Fa- 
ther Almighty,  maker  of  hea- 
ven and  earth. 

2.  And  in  Jesus  Christ  his 
only  son  our  Lord,  who  was 
conceived  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

3.  Born  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

4.  Suffered  under  Pontius 
Pilate. 

5.  Was  crucified. 

6.  Dead  and  buried. 

7.  He  descended  into  helL 

8.  The  third  day  he  rose 
again  from  the  dead. 

9.  He  ascended  into  heaven. 

10.  And  sitteth  at  the  right 
hand  of  God  the  Father  Al- 
mighty. 

11.  From  whence  he  shall 
come  to  judge  the  quick  and 
the  dead. 

12.  I  believe  in  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

13.  The  Holy  Catholic 
Church. 

14.  The  Communion  of 
Saints. 

15.  The  foreiveness  of  sins. 


The  Pagan  Creed. 

I  believe  in  God  the  Father 
Almighty,  maker  of  heaven  and 
earth. 

And  in  Jasius*  Christ  his 
only  son  our  Lord,  who  was 
conceived  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Born  of  the  Virgin  Electra. 

Suffered  under  [whom  it 
might  be.) 

Was  struck  by  a  thunder- 
bolt. 

Dead  and  buried. 

He  descended  into  hell. 

The  third  day  he  rose  again 
from  the  dead. 

He  ascended  into  heaven. 

And  sitteth  at  the  riglit  hand 
of  God  the  Father  Almighty. 

From  whence  he  shall  come 
to  judge  the  quick  and  the 
dead. 

I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  Holy  Catholic  Divinity. 
The  Communion  of  Saints. 
The  forgiveness  of  sins. 


*  "  Jasiusque  Pater,  genus  a  quo  principe  nostrum."     And  father  Jasius,  from 
which  Prmce  our  race  is  descended. — Virgil. 


10 


CHRISTIAN    AND    PAGAN    CREEDS    COLLATED. 


16.  The  resurrection   of  the         The  immortality  of  the  soul, 
body. 

17.  And  the  Hfe  everlasting.  And  the  life  everlasting. 


This  creed,  though  not  to  be 
found  in  this  form  in  the  Chris- 
tian Scriptures,  is  evidently  de- 
ducihle  from  them  as  their  sense 
and  purport. 

"  This  creed  still  bears  the 
name  of  the  Jiposlle's  Creed. 
From  the  fourth  century  dovvn- 
Avards  it  was  almost  generally 
considered  as  a  production  of 
the  Apostles.  All,  however, 
Avho  have  the  least  knowledge 
of  antiquity,  look  upon  this 
opinion  as  entirely  false  and 
destitute  of  all  foundation. 
There  is  much  more  reason  in 
the  opinion  of  those  who  think 
that  this  creed  was  not  all 
composed  at  once,  but  from 
small  beginnings  was  imper- 
ceptibly augme'ited,  in  propor- 
tion to  the  growth  of  heresy, 
and  according  to  the  exigen- 
cies and  circumstances  of  the 
church,  from  which  it  was  de- 
signed to  banish  the  errors  that 
daily  arose." — Mosheim,  vol.  i. 
p.  116,  117. 


This  creed,  though  not  to  be 
found  in  this  form  in  the  Pagan 
Scriptures,  is  evidently  deduci- 
ble  from  them  as  their  sense 
and  purport. 

The  reader  is  to  throw  into 
this  scale,  an  equal  quantity  of 
allowance  and  apology  to  that 
claimed  by  the  advocate  of 
Christianity  for  the  opposite. 
He  will  only  observe  that  on 
this  side,  apology  and  pallia- 
tion for  a  known  and  acknow- 
ledged imposture  and  forgery 
for  so  many  ages  palmed  upon 
the  world,  is  not  needed. 

It  is  not  the  Pagan  creed 
that  was  imposed  upon  man- 
kind, under  a  false  superscrip- 
tion, and  ascribed  to  an  autho- 
rity from  which  it  was  known 
not  to  have  proceeded.  Whe- 
ther a  church,  which  stands 
convicted  of  having  forged  its 
creed,  would  have  made  any 
scruple  of  forging  its  gospels; 
is  a  problem  that  the  reader  will 
solve  according  to  the  intluence 
of  prejudice  or  probability  on 
his  mind. 


INFERENCE. 

As  then,  the  so  called  Apostle's  Creed,  is  admitted  to 
have  been  written  by  no  such  persons  as  the  Apostles, 
and  with  respect  to  the  high  authority  wliich  has  for  so 
many  ag^es  been  claimed  for  it,  is  a  convicted  imposture 
and  forgery  ;  the  equity  of  rational  evidence  will  allow 
weiglit  enough,  even  to  a  probable  conjecture,  to  overthrow 
all  that  reinains  of  its  pretensions.  The  probability  is, 
that  it  is  really  a  Pagan  document,  and  of  Pagan  origi- 
nation ;  since,  even  after  the  trifling  alteration  and  sub- 
stitution of  one  name  perhaps  for  another,  to  mikc  it 
Bubserve  its  new  application,  it  yet  exhibits  a  closer  resem- 


STATE    OF    THE    HEATHEN    WORLD.  11 

blance  to  its  Pagan  stock,  than  to  the  Christian  stem  on 
which  it  has  been  engrafted. 

By  a  remarkable  oversight  of  the  keepings  and  congrui- 
ties  of  the  system,  the  Christian  creed  has  omitted  to 
call  ibr  our  belief  of  the  miracles  or  prophecies  which 
constitute  its  evidence,  or  for  our  practice  of  the  duties 
which  should  be  the  test  of  its  utility. 

If  then,  as  the  learned  and  judicious  Jeremiah  Jones, 
in  his  excellent  treatise  on  the  canonical  authority  of  the 
New  Testament,  ntost  justly  observes,  "  In  order  to  es- 
tablish the  canon  of  the  New  Testament,  it  be  of  absolute 
necessity  that  the  pretences  of  all  other  books  to  canonical 
authority  be  first  examined  and  refuted  :"*  much  more 
must  it  be  absolutely  necessary  to  establish  the  paramount 
and  distinctive  challenges  of  Christianity,  that  we  should 
be  able  to  refute  and  overthrow  all  the  pretences  of  pre- 
viously existing  religions,  by  such  a  cogency  and  fair- 
ness of  argument,  as  in  being  fatal  to  them,  shall  admit  of 
no  application  to  this,  which  battering  down  their  air- 
built  castles,  shall,  when  brought  to  play  with  equal  force 
on  Christianity,  leave  its  defences  unshaken  and  its  beauty 
unimpaired. 


CHAPTER  III. 

STATE    OF    THE    HEATHEN    WORLD. 

It  is  manifestly  unworthy  of  any  cause,  in  itself  con- 
taining an  intrinsic  and  independent  excellence,  that  its 
advocates  should  condescend  to  set  it  off  by  a  foil,  or  to 
act  as  if  they  thought  it  necessary  to  decry  and  disparage 
the  pretensions  of  others,  in  order  to  magnify  and  exalt 
their  own.  It  is  certain  that  the  vileness  of  falsehood 
can  add  nothing  to  the  glory  of  truth.  Showing  the  va- 
rious systems  of  heathen  idolatry  to  be,  how  vile  soever, 
would  be  adducing  neither  evidence  nor  even  presumption 
for  the  proof  of  the  divinity  of  a  system  of  religion  that 
was  not  so  vile,  or  even  if  you  please,  say  infinitely  supe- 
rior ;  as  a  beautiful  woman  would  certainly  feel  it  to  be 
but  an  ill  compliment  to  her  beauty,  to  have  it  constantly 
obtruded  upon  her  observance,  how  hideously  deformed 
and  monstrously  ugly  were  those,  than  whom  she  was  so 
much  more  beautiful. 

*  Vol.  I.  p.  16.  8vo.  Ed. 


12  STATE    OF    THE    HEATHEN    WORLD. 

As  it  would  not  be  fair  to  take  up  our  notion  of  the 
Christian  religion,  from  the  lowest  and  most  ignorant  of 
its  professors,  and  still  less,  perhaps,  to  estimate  its  merits, 
by  the  representations  which  its  known  and  avowed  ene- 
mies wonld  be  likely  to  give  ;  the  balance  of  equal  justice 
on  the  other  side,  will  forbid  our  forming  our  estimate  of 
the  ancient  paganism  from  the  misconceptions  of  its  un- 
worthy votaries,  or  the  interested  detractions  and  exag- 
gerations of  its  Christian  opponents. 

The  only  just  and  honourable  estimate  will  be  that 
which  shall  judge  of  paganism,  as  Christians  would  wish 
their  own  religion  to  be  judged — by  its  own  absolute  docu- 
ments, by  the  representations  of  its  advocates,  and  the 
admissions  of  its  adversaries. 

AVhen  it  is  borne  in  mind,  that  a  supernatural  origin- 
ation or  divine  authority  is  not  claimed  for  these  sys- 
tems of  theology,  there  can  be  no  occasion  to  fear  their 
rivalry  or  encroachment  on  systems  founded  on  such  a 
claim  ;  and  still  less,  to  decry,  vituperate,  and  scan- 
dalize these,  as  any  means  of  exalting  or  magnifying 
those.  There  cannot  be  the  least  doubt,  that  in  dark  and 
barbarous  ages,  the  rude  and  unlettered  part  of  mankind 
would  grossly  pervert  the  mystical  or  allegorical  sense, 
if  such  there  were,  in  the  forms  of  religion  propounded 
to  their  observance  or  imposed  on  their  simplicity  ;  while 
it  is  impossible,  that  those  enlighted  and  philosophical 
characters,  who  have  left  us  in  their  writings  the  most  un- 
doubted evidence  of  the  greatest  shrewdness  of  intellect, 
extent  of  inquiry,  and  goodness  of  heart,  should  have  un- 
derstood their  mythology  in  no  better  or  higher  signifi- 
cancy  than  as  it  was  understood  by  the  ignorant  of  their 
own  persuasion,  or  would  be  represented  by  their  ene- 
mies, who  had  the  strongest  possible  interest  in  defaming 
and  decrying  it.  When  the  worst  is  done  in  this  way, 
Christianity  would  be  but  little  the  gainer  by  being 
weighed  in  the  same  scales.  Should  we  be  allowed  to 
fix  on  the  darkest  day  of  her  eleven  hundred  years  of  dark 
ages,  and  to  pit  the  grossest  notions  of  the  grossest  igno- 
rance of  that  day,  as  specimens  of  Christianity  ;  against 
the  views  which  Christians  have  been  generally  pleased 
to  give  as  representations  of  paganism  ;  how  would  they 
abide  the  challenge,  "  look  on  this  picture  and  on  this  ?" 
Those  doctrines  only,  of  which  no  form  or  forms  of  the 
previously  existing  paganism  could  ever  pretend  the  same 
or  the  like  doctrines,  can  be  properly  and  distinctively 


STATE    OP    THE    HEATHEN   WORLD.  13 

called  Christian.  That  degree  of  excellence,  whose  very- 
lowest  stage  is  raised  above  the  very  highest  acme  of 
what  is  known  and  admitted  to  have  been  no  more  than 
human,  can  alone  put  in  a  challenge  to  be  regarded  as 
divine.  That  which  was  not  known  before,  is'that  only 
which  a  subsequent  revelation  can  have  taught. 

To  justify  the  claims,  therefore,  of  such  a  subsequent 
revelation,  we  must  make  the  full  allowance,  and  entirely 
strike  out  of  the  equation,  all  quantities  estimated  to  their 
fullest  and  utmost  appreciation,  which  are,  and  have 
been  claimed  as  the  property  of  pre-existent  systems  ; 
and  as  they  were  not  divine,  while  it  is  pretended  that 
this  is,  the  discovery  of  a  resemblance  between  the  one 
and  the  other,  can  only  be  feared  by  those  who  are  con- 
scious that  they  are  making  a  false  pretence.  Resem- 
blance to  a  counterfeit  is,  in  this  assay,  proof  of  a  coun- 
terfeit. Brass  may  sometimes  be  brought  to  look  like  gold, 
but  the  pure  gold  had  never  yet  the  ring  and  imperfections 
of  any  baser  metal. 

At  the  time  alleged  as  that  of  the  birth  of  Jesus,  all  na- 
tions were  living  in  the  peaceful  profession  and  practice 
of  the  several  systems  of  religious  faith  which  they  had, 
as  nations  or  as  families,  derived  from  their  ancestors,  in 
an  antiquity  lying  far  beyond  the  records  of  historical 
commemoration.  Christians  generally  claim  for  this 
epocha  of  time  the  truly  honourable  distinction  of  being 
the  pacific  age*  The  benign  influence  of  letters  and 
philosophy,  was  at  this  time  extensively  diffused  through 
countries  which  had  previously  lain  under  the  darkest 
ignorance  ;  and  nations,  whose  manners  had  been  savage 
and  barbarous,  were  civilized  by  the  laws  and  commerce 
of  the  Romans.  The  Christian  writer  Orosius,  maintains 
that  the  temple  of  Janus  was  then  shut,  and  that  wars 
and  discords  had  absolutely  ceased  throughout  the  world  : 
which,  though  an  allegorical,  and  very  probably  an  hy- 
perbolical representation  of  the  matter,  is  at  least  an 
honourable  testimony  to  the  then  state  of  the  heathen 
world. 

The  notion  of  one  supreme  being  was  universal.  No 
calumny  could  be  more  egregious,  than  that  which  charges 
the  pagan  world  with  ever  having  lost  sight  of  that 
notion,  or  compromised  or  surrendered  its  paramount 
importance,  in  all  the  varieties  and  modifications  of  pagan 

*  Mosheim,  Vol.  I.  Chap.  1. 

3 


14  STATE    OF    THE    HEATHEN    WORLD. 

piety.*  This  predominant  notion  (admits  Mosheim) 
showed  itself,  even  through  the  darkness  of  the  grossest 
idolatry. 

The  candour  which  gives  the  Protestant  Christian 
credit  for  his  professed  belief  in  the  unity  of  God,  even 
against  the  conflict  of  his  own  assertion  of  believing  at 
the  same  time  in  a  trinity  of  three  persons,  which  are  each 
of  them  a  God  ;  the  fairness  which  respects  the  dis- 
tinction which  the  Catholic  Christian  challenges  between 
his  Latria  and  Doulia,  his  worship  of  the  Almighty,  and 
his  veneration  of  the  images  of  the  saints,  will  never 
suppose  that  the  divinity  of  the  inferior  deities  was  under- 
stood in  any  sense  of  disparagement  to  the  alone  supreme 
and  undivided  godhead  of  their  "one  first — one  greatest — 
only  Lord  of  all." 

The  evidences  of  Christianity  must  be  in  a  labouring 
condition  indeed,  if  they  require  us  to  imagine  that  a 
Cicero,  Tacitus,  or  Pliny  were  worshippers  of  gods  of 
wood  and  stone  ;  or  to  force  on  our  apprehensions  such  a 
violence,  as  that  we  should  imagine  that  the  mighty  mind 
that  had  enriched  the  world  with  Euclid's  Elements  of 
Geometry,  could  have  bowed  to  the  deities  of  Euclid's 
Egypt,  and  worshipped  leeks  and  crocodiles. 

Orthodoxy  itself  will  no  longer  suggest  its  resistance  to 
the  only  faithful  and  rational  account  of  the  matter,  so 
elegantly  given  us  by  Gibbon. f  "  The  various  modes  of 
worship  which  prevailed  in  the  Roman  world,  were  all 
considered,  by  the  people,  as  equally  true, — by  the  philoso- 
pher, as  equally  false, — and  by  the  magistrate,  as  equally 
useful. 

"  Both  the  interests  of  the  priests,  and  the  credulity  of 
the  people  were  sufficiently  respected.  In  their  writings 
and  conversation,  the  philosophers  of  antiquity  asserted 
the  independent  dignity  of  reason  ;  but  they  resigned 
their  actions  to  the  commands  of  law  and  custom.  View- 
ing with  a  smile  of  pity  and  indulgence  the  various  errors 
of  the  vulgar,  they  diligently  practised  the  ceremonies  of 
their  fathers,  devoutly  frequented  the  temples  of  the 
gods  ;  and  sometimes  condescending  to  act  a  part  on  the 
theatre  of  superstition,  they  concealed  the  sentiments  of 

*  All  the  inferior  deities  in  Homer,  are  represented  as  thus  addressing  the 
enpreme  Jovn 

"Oh  first  and  greatest,  GOD  !  by  gods  adored. 

We  own  thy  power,  our  father  and  our  lord." — Iliad- 

t  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  vol.  i.  chap.  2.  p.  46. 


STATE    OF    THE    HEATHEN    WORLD.  15 

an  atheist  under  the  sacerdotal  robe.  Reasoners  of  such 
a  temper  were  scarcely  inclined  to  wrangle  about  their 
respective  modes  of  faith,  or  of  worship.  It  was  indiffer- 
ent to  them  what  shape  the  folly  of  the  multitude  might 
choose  to  assume  ;  and  they  approached  with  the  same 
inward  contempt  and  the  same  external  reverence  to  the 
altars  of  the  Lybian,  the  Olympian,  or  the  Capitoline 
Jupiter."* 

It  was  a  common  adage  among  the  Greeks,  9ctviu.xTx 
(4.a,p,ii — Miracles  for  fools  ;  and  the  same  proverb  obtained 
among  the  shrewder  Romans,  in  the  saying,  Vulgus  vult 
decipi — decipiatur,  "  The  common  people  like  to  he  deceived — 
deceived  let  them  6e." 

The  Christian,  perhaps,  may  boast  of  his  sincerity,  but 
a  moment's  thought  will  admonish  him  how  little  virtue 
there  is  in  such  a  quality,  when  it  forces  a  necessity  of 
hypocrisy  on  others.  Sincerity  should  be  safe  on  both 
sides  of  the  hedge.  It  was  never  taken  for  a  virtue  in  an 
unbeliever. 

"  Every  nation  then  had  its  respective  gods,  over  which 
presided  one  more  excellent  than  the  rest ;"  and  the  de- 
gree of  this  pre-eminency,  as  versified  by  Pope  from 
the  6th  book  of  the  Iliad,  is  an  absolute  vindication  of 
the  Pagan  world  from  the  charge  of  the  grosser  and  more 
revolting  sense  of  Polytheism.  They  were  virtually 
Deists.  None  of  their  divinities  were  thought  to  approach 
nearer  to  the  supremacy  of  the  father  of  gods  and  men, 
than  the  various  orders  of  the  Cherubim  and  Seraphim,  to 
the  God  and  Father  of  Jesus  Christ, 

Who  but  behold  his  utmost  skirts  of  glory, 


And  far  off,  his  steps  adore. ' 

So  in  the  language  of  their  Iliad  (and  language  has  nothing 
more  sublime)  we  read  the. august  challenge  : — 

"  Let  down  our  golden  everlasting  chain, 

Whose  strong  embrace  holds  heaven,  and  earth,  and  main  ; 

Strive  all  of  mortal  or  immortal  birth. 

To  drag  by  this  the  thunderer  down  to  earth. 

Ye  strive  in  vain.      If  [  but  lift  this  hand, 

I  heave  the  heavens,  the  ocean,  and  the  land  ; 

For  such  I  reign  unbounded  and  above. 

And  such  are  men,  and  gods,  compared  to  Jove." 

Mosheim,  upon  an  evident  misunderstanding,  assumes 
that  their    supreme   deity,  in    comparison   to   whom  the 

*  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  vol.  i.  p.  49,  50. 


16  STATE    OF    THE    HEATHEN    WORLD. 

gods  and  goddesses  were  as  far  off  from  an  absolute 
divinity,  as  ever  were  the  guardian  angels  and  tutelary- 
saints  of  Christianity  ;  was  himself  believed  to  be  subject 
to  the  rigid  empire  of  the  fates,  or  what  the  philosophers 
called  eternal  necessity.  But  the  word  fate,  by  its  derivation 
from  the  natural  indication  of  command — Fiat  !  Be  it  so  ; 
may  satisfy  us,  that  nothing  more  was  meant,  than  that 
the  supreme  deity  was  bound  by  his  own  engagements, 
that  his  word  was  irrevocable,  and  that  all  his  actions 
were  determined  and  guided  by  the  everlasting  law  of 
righteousness,  and  conformed  to  the  counsels  and  sanctions 
of  his  own  unerring  mind.  So  that  He,  and  He  alone, 
could  say  with  truth, 

" Necessity  and  Chance 

Approach  me  not,  and  what  I  will — is  fate." 

"  One  thing,  indeed,"  says  our  authority,  (Mosheim), 
"  appears  at  first  sight  very  remarkable — that  the  variety 
of  religions  and  gods  in  the  heathen  world,  neither  pro- 
duced wars  nor  dissentions  among  the  different  nations."* 
A  diligent  and  candid  investigation  of  historical  data  will 
demonstrate,  that  from  this  general  rale,  there  is  no  valid 
and  satisfactory  instance  of  exception.  The  Greeks  may 
have  carried  on  a  war  to  recover  lands  that  had  been 
distrained  from  the  possession  of  their  priests  ;  and  the 
Egyptians  may  have  revenged  the  slaughter  of  their 
crocodiles  ;  but  these  wars  never  proposed  as  their 
object,  the  insolent  intolerance  of  forcing  their  modes 
of  faith  or  worship  on  other  nations.  They  were  not 
offended  at  their  neighbours  for  serving  other  divinities, 
but  they  could  not  bear  that  theirs,  should  be  put  to 
death.  And  if,  perhaps,  where  we  read  the  word  divini- 
ties, we  should  understand  it  to  mean  nothing  more  than 
favourites  ;  and  instead  of  saying  that  people  worshipped 
such  and  such  things,  that  they  were  excessively  or  fool- 
ishly attached  to  them  ;  considering  that  such  language' 
owes  its  original  modification  to  Christian  antipathies,  it 
might  be  brought  back  to  a  nearer  affinity  to  probability, 
as  well  as  to  charity.  An  Egyptian  might  be  as  fond  of^ 
onions,  as  a  Welshman  of  leeks,  a  Scot  of  thistles,  cr  an 
Irishman  of  shamrock,  without  exactly  taking  their  gar- 
bage for  onuiipotence.f 

*  Their  religion  had  not  made  fools  of  them. 

t  Who  that  wished  to  he  a  thriving  wooer,  ever  hesitated  to  drop  on  his  knee 
and  adore  his  mistress?  "  VV' ith  my  body  I  thee  worship." — Matrimonial 
Service. 


STATE    OF    THE     HEATHEN    WORLD.  17 

"  Each  .nation  suffered  its  neig'hbours  to  follow  their 
own  method  of  worship,  to  adore  their  own  gods,  to 
enjoy  their  own  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  discovered  no 
displeasure  at  their  diversity  of  sentiments  in  religious 
matters.  They  all  looked  upon  the  world  as  one  great 
empire,  divided  into  various  provinces,  over  every  one 
of  which,  a  certain  order  of  divinities  presided,  and  that, 
therefore,  none  could  behold  with  contempt  the  gods  of 
other  nations,  or  force  strangers  to  pay  homage  to  theirs. 

The  Romans  exercised  this  toleration  in  the  amplest 
manner.  As  the  sources  from  which  all  men's  ideas  are 
derived,  are  the  same,  namely,  from  their  senses,  there 
being  no  other  inlet  to  the  mind  but  thereby,  there  is 
nothing  wonderful  in  the  general  prevalence  of  a  same- 
ness of  the  ideas  of  human  beings  in  all  regions  and  all 
ages  of  the  world.  The  affections  of  fear,  grief,  pain, 
hope,  pleasure,  gratitude,  &c.,  are  as  common  to  man  as 
his  nature  as  a  man,  and  could  not  fail  to  produce  a  cor- 
responding similarity  in  the  objects  of  his  superstitious 
veneration.  To  have  nothing  in  common  with  the 
already  established  notions  of  mankind,  to  bear  no  fea- 
tures of  resemblance  to  their  hallucinations  and  follies,  to 
be  nothing  like  them,  to  be  to  nothing  so  unlike,  should 
be  the  essential  predications  and  necessary  credentials  of 
the  "  wisdom  which  is  from  above." 

It  has,  however,  been  alleged  by  learned  men,  with 
convincing  arguments  of  probability,  "  that  the  princi- 
pal deities  of  all  the  Gentile  nations  resembled  each 
other  extremely,  in  their  essential  characters  ;  and  if  so, 
their  receiving  the  same  names  could  not  introduce  much 
confusion  into  mythology,  since  they  were  probably 
derived  from  one  common  source.  If  the  TJior  of  the 
ancient  Celts,  was  the  same  in  dignity,  character,  and 
attributes  with  the  Jupiter  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
where  was  the  impropriety  of  giving  him  the  same  name.' 
Dies  Jovis  is  still  the  Latin  form  for  our  Thor's  day. 
When  the  Greeks  found  in  other  countries  deities  that 
resembled  their  own,  they  persuaded  the  worshippers  of 
those  foreign  gods  that  their  deities  were  the  same  that 
were  honoured  in  Greece,  and  were,  indeed,  themselves 
convinced  that  this  was  the  case.  In  consequence  of  this, 
the  Greeks  gave  the  names  of  their  gods  to  those  of  other 
nations,  and  the  Romans  in  this  followed  their  example. 
Hence  we  find  the  names  of  Jupiter,  Mars,  Mercury, 
Venus,  &c.,  frequently  mentioned  in  the  more  recent 
3* 


18  STATE    OF    THE    HKATHEN    WORLD. 

monuments  and  inscriptions  whicii  have  been  found  among 
the  Gauls  and  Germans,  thovig-h  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
those  countries  had  worshipped  no  gods  under  such  de- 
nominations."— JVoie  in  JMosheim. 

To  have  been  goddess-born,  heaven-descended;  to  have 
"  lived  and  died  as  none  could  live  and  die,"  to  have  been 
believed  to  have  done  and  suffered  great  things  for  the 
service  of  mankind,  but  above  all,  to  have  propitiated 
the  wrath  of  the  Superior  Deity,  and  to  have  conquered 
the  invisible  authors  of  mischief,  in  their  behalf,  was  such 
an  overwhelming  draft  on  the  tender  feelings,  the  excite- 
ment of  which  is  one  of  the  strongest  sources  of  pleasure 
in  our  nature,  that  the  best  hearts  and  the  weakest  heads 
never  gave  place  to  the  coolness  and  apathy  of  scepti- 
cism. Not  a  doubt  was  entertained  that  a  similar  series 
of  adventures  was  proof  of  one  and  the  same  hero,  and 
that  the  Grecian  Apollo,  the  Phoenician  Adonis,  the 
iEsculapius  of  Athens,  the  Osiris  of  Egypt,  the  Christ  of 
India,  were  but  various  names  of  the  self-same  deity;  so 
that  nothing  was  so  easy  at  any  time,  as  the  business  of 
conversion.  Not  incredulity,  but  credulity,  is  the  charac- 
teristic propensity  of  mankind. 

A  disposition  to  adopt  the  religious  ceremonies  of  other 
nations,  to  multiply  the  objects  of  faith,  to  listen  with 
eagerness  to  any  thing  that  was  offered  to  them  under  a 
profession  of  novelty,  to  believe  every  pretence  to  divine 
revelation,  and  to  embrace  every  creed,  presents  itself  in 
the  history  of  almost  every  society  of  men,  and  is  found 
as  inalienable  a  characteristic  of  uncivilized,  or  but  par- 
tially civilized  man,  as  cunning  is  of  the  fox,  and  courage 
of  the  lion.  Unbelief  is  no  sin  that  ignorance  was  ever 
capable  of  being  guilty  of ;  to  suspect  it  of  the  Gentile 
nations  previous  to  the  Christian  era,  is  to  outrage  all 
inferences  of  our  own  experience,  and  to  suppose  the 
human  race  in  former  times  to  have  been  a  different  species 
of  animals  from  any  of  which  the  wonder-loving  and  credu- 
lous vulgar  of  our  own  days  could  be  the  descendants. 

Of  all  miracles  that  could  possibly  be  imagined,  the 
miracle  of  a  miracle  not  being  believed,  would  be  the 
most  miraculous,  the  most  incongruous  in  its  character, 
and  the  nearest  to  the  involving  a  contradiction  in  its 
terms.  If  proof  of  a  truth  so  obvious  M'-ere  not  super- 
fluous, the  Christian  might  be  commended  to  the  consi- 
deration of  authorities,  to  whose  decision  he  is  trained 
and  disposed  to  submit. 


STATE    OF    THE    HEATHEN    WORLD.  19 

His  Paul  of  Tarsus  finds,  in  the  city  of  Athens,  an  altar 
erected  to  the  Unknown  Gods  ;*  and  taking  what  Le  Clerc 
considers  a  justifiable  liberty  with  the  inscription,  compli- 
ments the  citizens  on  such  a  proof  of  their  predisposi- 
tion to  receive  the  God  whom  he  propounded  to  them,  or 
any  other,  as  well  without  evidence  as  with  it,  and  to  be 
converted  without  putting  him  to  the  trouble  of  a  miracle. 
Acts  xvii.  22. 

The  inhabitants  of  Lystra,  upon  only  hearing  of  the 
most  equivocal  and  suspicious  case  of  wonderment  that 
could  well  be  imagined,  even  that  a  lame  beggar,  who 
might  have  been  hired  for  the  purpose,  or  probably  had 
never  been  lame  at  all,  had  been  cured,  or  imagined  him- 
self cured,  by  two  entire  strangers,  itinerant  Therapeutse, 
or  tramping  quack-doctors,  without  either  inquiry  or 
doubt,  setup  the  cry,  "That  Jupiter  and  Mercury  were 
come  down  from  heaven  in  the  shape  of  these  quack-doc- 
tors ;"  and  with  all  the  doctors  themselves  could  do  to 
check  the  intensity  of  their  devotion,  '■'■scarce  restrg,ined  they 
the  people  that  they  had  not  done  sacrifice.''^ — Acts  xiv.  18. 

♦  "  Quamvis  plurali  numero  legeretur  inscriptio  ttyiottrToi?  ^joi?  recte  de  Deo 
Ignoto,  locutus  est  Paulus.  Quia  plurali  numero  continetur  singularis." — Cleric. 
H.  G.  A.  52.  p.  374.  There  is  sufficient  evidence,  howe\er,  that  Paul  read  the 
inscription  correctly  ;  so  that  the  comruentator's  ready  quibble  is  not  called  for. 

The  various  translations  given  of  this  text,  make  a  good  specimen  of  the  difficulty 
of  coming  at  the  real  sense  of  any  ancient  legends. 

THE    GREEK.  THE    LATIN. 

SraS-eig  8t  0  IlavXo?  sv  jLieato  T8  ancts-  Stans  autem  Paulus  in  medio  Areo- 
nayti  Kfij  avSQtg  A-9-ypaioi  xara  navra  pagi,  ait,  Viri  Athenensis,  per  omnia 
(Of  Stiaidauiovtaxtqaq  vftag -dtwQu).  quasi  superstitiones  vos  aspicio. 

1.   DR.   lardner's  translation. 
"  Paul,  therefore,  standing  up  in  the  midst  of  the  Areopagus,  said,  Ye  men  of 
Athens,  I  perceive  that  ye  are  in  all  things  very  religious." 

2.    UNITARIAN    VERSION. 

"  Then  Patil  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  court  of  Areopagus,  and  said.  Ye  men 
of  Athens,  I  perceive  that  ye  are  exceedingly  addicted  to  the  worship  of  demons." 

3.    ARCHBISHOP    NEWCOMb's    VERSION. 

"  Ye  men  of  Athens,  I  perceive  that  in  all  things  ye  are  somewhat  too  reU- 
gious." 

4.    COMMON    VERSION. 

"Ye  men  of  Athens,  I  perceive  that  in  all  things  ye  are  too  superstitious." 
These  various  translators,  however,  did  not  mean  exactly  to  discover,  that  reli- 
gion and  superstition  were  convertible  terms. — Six,  is  one  thing,  and  half  a  dozen 
is  another. 


20  STATE    OF    THE    .JEW3. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    STATE    OF    THE    JEWS. 

The  grand  exception  to  the  harmonious  universaHsm  of 
rehgions,  and  to  that  entire  prevalence,  as  far  as  rehgion 
was  concerned,  of  "peace  on  earth  and  good  will  among 
men,"  which  arose  from  the  practical  conviction  of  a 
sentiment  which  had  passed  into  a  connnon  proverb, 
"Deorum  injuri.e,  Diis  cuRiE,"  that  "  The  wrongs  of  the 
gods  icere  the  concerns  of  the  gods^^^  occurred  among  a 
melancholy  and  misanthropic  horde  of  exclusively  super- 
stitious barbarians,  who,  from  their  own  and  the  best 
account  that  we  have  of  them,  were  colonized  from 
their  captivity,  by  a  Babylonian  prince,  on  the  sterile 
soil  of  Judea,  about  twenty-three  hundred  years  ago ; 
and,  by  the  exclusive,  unsocial,  and  uncivilized  character 
of  their  superstition,  were  exposed  to  frequent  wars 
and  final  dispersion.  The  exclusive  character  of  their 
superstition,  and  the  constant  intermarriage  with  their 
own  caste  or  sect,  have,  to  this  day,  preserved  to  them,  in 
all  countries,  a  distinct  character.  These  barbarians,  who 
resented  the  consciousness  of  their  inferiority  in  the  scale 
of  rational  being,  by  an  invincible  hatred  of  the  whole 
human  race,  being  without  wit  or  invention  to  devise  to 
themselves  any  original  system  of  theology,  adopted  from 
time  to  time  the  various  conceits  of  the  various  nations, 
by  whom  their  rambling  and  predatory  tribes  had  been 
held  in  subjugation.  They  plagiarized  the  religious 
legends  of  the  nations,  among  whom  their  characteristic 
idleness  and  inferiority  of  understanding  had  caused  them 
to  be  vagabonds  ;  and  pretended  that  the  furtive  patch- 
work was  a  system  of  theology  intended  by  heaven 
for  their  exclusive  benefit.  There  is,  however,  nothing 
extraordinary  in  this  ;  the  miserable  and  the  wretched 
always  seek  to  console  themselves  for  the  absence  of  real 
advantages,  by  an  imaginary  counterbalance  of  spiritual 
privilege.  An'  let  them  be  the  caterers,  they  shall  always 
be  the  favourites  of  Omnipotence,  and  their  afflictions  in 
this  world,  shall  be  to  be  overpaid  with  a  "  far  more 
exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory,"  in  another. 
In  some  instances  it  will  be  found,  that  the  means  of 
detecting  the  original  idea  has  been  washed  down  the 


STATE    OF    THE    JEWS.  2\ 

stream  of  time.  The  Jews,  who,  probably,  always  were, 
as  ,they  are  at  present,  the  old-clothes-men  of  the  world, 
have  had  but  little  difficulty  in  scratching  up  a  sufficient 
freshness  of  nap  upon  borrov/ed  or  stolen  theology,  to 
disguise  its  original  character.  Very  often,  however,  has 
their  idleness  betrayed  their  policy,  and  left  us  scarcely  so 
much  as  an  alteration  of  names  to  put  us  to  the  trouble  of 
a  doubt. 

They  give  us  the  story  of  the  sacrifice  of  Ipthegenia, 
the  daughter  of  Agamemnon,  as  an  original  legend  of  a 
judge  of  Israel,  who  had  immolated  his  daughter  to 
Yahouh,  or  Jao,  without  so  much  as  respecting  the  wish 
to  be  deceived,  not  even  being  at  the  pains  to  vary  the 
name  of  the  heroine  of  the  fable.  By  a  division  of  the 
syllables  into  two  words,  Ipthi-geni  is  literally  Jeptha's 
daughter  ;  and  even  the  name  of  Moses  himself,  as  it 
stands  in  the  Greek  text,  is  composed  of  the  same 
consonant  letters  as  Mises,  the  Arabian  name  of  Bacchus, 
of  whom  precisely  the  same  adventures  were  related, 
and  believed,  many  ages  before  there  existed  a  race 
known  on  earth  as  the  nation  of  Israel,  or  any  individual 
of  that  nation  capable  of  committing  either  truth  or  false- 
hood to  written  documents.  There  have  been  dancing 
bears,  sagacious  pigs,  and  learned  horses  in  the  world, 
but  the  Jews  are  as  innocent  as  any  of  them  of  the 
faculty  of  original  invention. 

Their  strong  man  (Samson)  carrying  away  the  gates  of 
Gaza,  is  scarcely  a  various  reading  from  the  story  of 
Hercules'  pillars  at  Gades,  Cades,  or  Cadiz. 

That  this  melancholy  race  of  rambling  savages  had 
derived  the  principal  features  of  their  theology  from  the 
deities  of  Egypt,  is  demonstrable  from  the  literal  identity 
of  the  name  of  the  god  of  Memphis,  Jao,  with  that  of  the 
boasted  god  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,  who  are 
each  of  them  believed  to  have  been  either  natives  or  very 
long  residents  of  that  country. 

Moses  himself,  on  the  face  of  their  own  report,  was 
confessedly  an  Egyptian  priest.  The  Jewish  Eiohim 
were  the  decans  of  the  Egyptians  ;  the  same  as  the  genii 
of  the  months  and  planets  among  the  Persians  and  Chal- 
deans ;  and  Jao,  or  Yahouh,  considered  merely  as  one 
of  these  beings  generically  called  Eiohim  or  Alehim, 
appears  to  have  been  only  a  national  or  topical  deity. 
We  find  one  of  the  presidents  of  the  Jewivsh  liorde, 
negociating  with  a   king  of  the   Amorites,   precisely   on 


ZZ  STATE    OF    THE    JEWS. 

these  terms  of  a  common  understanding  between  them. 
"  Wilt  not  thou  possess  that  which  Chemosh,  thy  Alehim, 
giveth  tliee  to  possess  ?  So  whomsoever  Jao,  our  Alehim, 
shall  drive  out  from  before  us,  them  will  we  possess."* 

Nor  is  it  at  all  concealed,  that  the  power  of  Jao,  as  nmch 
as  of  any  other  topical  god,  was  confined  to  the  province 
over  which  he  presided.  "  The  Jao  Alehim  of  Israel, 
fought  for  Israel,!  and  Jao  drave  cut  the  inhabitants  of 
the  mountain  ;  but  could  not  drive  out  the  inhabitants  of 
the  valley,  because  they  had  chariots  of  iron. "|  The 
God  of  Israel  was  no  match  for  the  tutelary  deities  of 
the  valley.  The  first  commandment  of  the  decalogue 
involves  a  virtual  recognition  of  the  existence,  and  rival, 
if  not  equal  claims  of  other  deities.  "  Thou  shalt  have 
none  other  gods  but  me,"  is  no  mandate  that  could  have 
issued  from  one  who  had  been  entirely  satisfied  of  his 
own  supremacy,  and  that  those  to  whom  he  had  once 
revealed  himself,  were  in  no  danger  of  giving  a  preference 
to  the  idols  of  the  Gentiles.  To  say  nothing  of  the  highest 
implied  compliment  to  those  idols,  in  the  confession  of 
Jao,  that  he  was  jealous  of  his  people's  attachment.  "  / 
the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God^^''  Exod.  xx.  He  was 
Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  &c.  in  such  sense  as  the  Empe- 
ror of  China,  the  Grand  Sultan,  &c., — by  courtesy. 

It  would  be"  difficult  to  imagine,  and  surely  impossible 
to  find,  among  all  the  formularies  of  ancient  Paganism,  any 
manner  of  speaking  ascribed  to  their  deities  more  truly 
contemptible,  more  engregiously  absurd  and  revolting  to 
common  sense,  than  -the  language  which  their  lively 
oracles  put  into  the  mouth  of  their  deity.  Sometimes  he  is 
described  as  roaring  like  a  lion,  at  others  as  hissing  like 
a  snake,  as  burning  with  rage,  and  unable  to  restrain  his 
own  passions,  as  kicking,  smiting,  cursing,  swearing, 
smelling,  vomiting,  repenting,  being  grieved  at  his  heart, 
his  fury  conung  u\)  in  his  face,  his  nostrils  smoking,  &c. 
For  which  our  Christian  divines  have  invented  the 
apology,  "that  these  things  are  spoken  thus,  in  acconmio- 
dation  to  the  weakness  of  human  conceptions,"  and 
ttvdov>fionuf)u>c  as  humanly  suffering  ;  without,  however,  al- 
lowing benefit  of  the  same  a})ology,  to  throw  any  sort  of 
palHation  over  the  grossnesses  of  the  literal  sense  of  the 
Pagan  tlieology.     It  is  well  known,  that  the  Pagan  wor- 

*  Judges  xi.  24.  +  .Joshua  x.  42. 

t  Judj^es  i.  19.  Audnote  well,  that  this  Chemosh,  called  in  I.  Kings  xi.  7.  the 
aboriiiiiHtion  of  Moab,  is  none  other  than  the  Christian  Messiah,  or  Sun  of  Righte- 
ousness, of  Malachi  iii.  20,  or  iv.  2. 


STATE    OF    THE    JEWS.  23 

ship  by  no  means  involved  such  a  real  prostration  of 
intellect,  and  such  an  absolute  surrender  of  the  senses 
and  reason,  as  is  involved  in  the  Christian  notion  of  pay- 
ing divine  honours.  It  often  meant  no  more  than  a  habit 
of  holding  the  thing  so  said  to  be  worshipped,  in  a  par- 
ticular degree  of  attachment,  as  many  Christians  carry 
about  them  a  lucky  penny,  or  a  curious  pebble,  keep- 
sakes or  mementos  of  past  prosperity,  or  something  which 
is  to  recall  to  their  minds  those  agreeable  associations  of 
idea,  which 

"  Lingering  haunt  the  greenest  spot 
On  mem'ry's  waste." 

Thus  the  Egyptian's  worship  of  onions,  however  at 
first  view  ridiculous  and  childish,  and  exposing  him  to 
the  scorn  and  sarcasm  both  of  Christian  and  Heathen 
satirists  ;*  in  his  own  view  and  representation  of  the 
matter,  (which  surely  is  as  fairly  to  be  taken  into  the 
account  as  the  representations  of  those  who  would  never 
give  themselves  the  trouble  to  investigate  what  had  once 
moved  their  laughter,)  by  no  means  implied  that  he  took 
the  onion  itself  to  be  a  god,  or  forgot  or  neglected  its 
culinary  uses  as  a  vegetable.  The  respect  he  paid  to  it 
referred  to  a  high  and  mystical  order  of  astronomical 
speculations,  and  was  purely  emblematical.  The  onion 
presented  to  the  eye  of  the  Egyptian  visionary,  the  most 
curious  type  in  nature  of  the  disposition  and  arrange- 
ment of  the  great  solar  system.  "  Supposing  the  root 
and  top  of  the  head  to  represent  the  two  poles,  if  you 
cut  any  one  transversely  or  diagonally,  you  will  find 
it  divided  into  the  same  number  of  spheres,  including 
each  other,  counting  from  the  sun  or  centre  to  the  cir- 
cumference, as  they  knew  the  motions"  or  courses  of  the 
orbs  (or  planets)  divided  the  fluid  system  of  the  heavens 
into  ;  and  so  the  divisions  represented  the  courses  of 
those  orbs."  This  observation  of  Mr.  Hutchinsonf  has 
since  been  made  or  borrowed  by  Dr.  Shaw,  who  observes, 
that  "  the  onion,  upon  account  of  the  root  of  it,  which 
consists  of  many  coats  enveloping  each  other,  like  the 
orbs  (orbits)  in  the  planetary  system,  was  another  of  their 
sacred  vegetables."}:     Our  use  of  these  observations,  how- 

*  Porrum  et  cepe  nefas  violare  et  frangere  morsu. 
O  sanctas  gentes,  quibus  heec  nascuntur  in  hortis 
Nutnina  !  Juvenal  Sat.  15.  lin.  9.  11. 

A  sin,  forsooth,  to  violate  and  break  by  biting  the  leek  and  onions,  ,3. 
holy  people,  in  whose  gardens  these  divinities  are  born  ! 

t  His  works,  vol.  4.  p.  262.  t  Shaw's  Travels,  p.  356. 


24  STATE    OF    THE    JEWS. 

ever,  is  only  to  supply  a  demonstration  that  the  grossest 
forms  of  apparent  nonsense  and  absurdity  in  which 
Paganism  ever  existed,  were  never  more  distressed  for 
a  good  excuse,  or  the  pretence  of  some  plausible  emble- 
matical and  mystical  sense,  than  Judaism,  and  that  if 
we  acquit  the  Jewish  religion  from  the  charge  of  extreme 
folly,  there  was  never  any  religion  on  earth  that  could  be 
fairly  convicted  of  it. 

The  plurality  of  the  Hebrew  word  Aleim,  for  God,  in 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  in  the  Old  Testament 
throughout,  is  urged  by  orthodox  divines  as  an  argument 
for  their  favourite  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 

The  Jews  find  their  text  thus  burthened  with  a  sense 
which  they  themselves  disclaim.  A  similar  plural  word — 
the  heavens — expressive  of  precisely  the  same  sense, 
where  plurality  is  by  no  means  the  leading  idea,  is  found 
in  our  own  language,  and  among  all  nations  whose  ideas 
of  deity  were  drawn  as  our  own  evidently  are,  from  the 
visible  heavens,  the  imaginary  ceiling  of  an  upper  story, 
in  which  the  Deity  was  supposed  to  reside. 

The  Hebrew  d'ob'  Shevimim,  and  the  Chaldee  n'DB' 
Shemmai,  are  in  like  manner  plural  words — literally,  the 
heavens,  and  used  synonymously  with  d'H^n  Jllehim — the 
gods — for  God.* 

The  Pagans  used  the  same  plural  words,  the  gods,  for 
God,  although  it  was  to  one  being  alone  that  in  the  stricter 
sense  that  title  was  applicable.  We  use  precisely  the 
same  plural  form,  "  Heavens  defend  us!  synechdochically  for 
God  defend  us!  as  in  that  beautiful  and  moral  apostrophe 
of  King  Lear — 


-Take  physic,  pomp  ! 


Expose  thyself  to  feel  what  wretches  feel, 

That  thou  may'st  shake  the  superflux  to  them, 

And  show  the  heavens  more  just."  Shakspeare. 

that  is,  show  God  more  just. 

This,  our  adherence  to  the  Pagan  phrase,  happens  to 
be  consecrated  by  the  text  of  the  New  Testament,!  in 

*  Daniel  iv.  26,  "  Thy  kingdom  shall  be  sure  unto  thee  after  that  thou  shall 
have  known  that  the  heavens  do  rule,"  i.  e.  that  God,  i.  e-  that  the  most 
HIGH,  above  our  heads,  doth  rule.  By  the  heavens,  says  Parkhurst,  are  signi- 
fied the  true  Aleim,  or  persons  of  Jehovah.     Heb.  Lex.  p.  741. 1. 

t  Matt.  xxi.  25.— Mark  xi.  30,  31.         Luke  xv.  18.  xx.  4,  5.— John  iv.  27. 
H  (ianiXeia  Tutv  8Qav<ov.  The   kingdom  of  the   heavens  and  the 

H  (iaatktia  tb  &ih.  kingdom    of  God   are  throughout   Mat- 

thew and  Mark  interchangeable. 


STATE    OF    THE    JEWS.  25 

which  the  kingdom  of  the  heavens,  and  the  king-dom  of 
God,  and  God,  and  the  heavens,  are  perfectly  synony- 
mous, and  used  indifferently  for  the  expression  of  precisely 
the  same  sense.  Not  a  plurality  of  three,  then,  nor  of 
any  definite  number,  was  implied  by  that  plural  noun 
used  with  the  verb  sing\ilar,  in  the  Jewish  Mehini,  but 
merely  that  vague  reference  to  the  planets,  from  which 
the  very  name  of  God  is  derived,*  and  to  which  the 
primitive  idea  of  all  the  multifarious  modifications  of 
idolatry  or  piety,  superstition  or  religion,  may  ultimately 
be  traced.  The  Jews  themselves  are  as  justly  chargeable 
with  polytheism,  as  the  nations  whose  spiritual  advantages 
they  affect  to  despise. 
^  Their  historian,  Josephus,  who  lived  and  wrote  about 
sixty  years  after  Christ,  sought  in  vain  for  the  testimony 
of  Egyptian  authors  to  support  the  high  pretensions  he 
advanced.  Not  one  has  so  much  as  mentioned  the  prodi- 
gies of  Moses,  or  held  out  the  least  glimpse  of  probability 
or  coincidence  to  his  romantic  tale. 

The  whole  fable  of  Moses,  however,  will  be  found  in 
the  Orphic  verses  sung  in  the  orgies  of  Bacchus,  as  cele- 
brated in  Egypt,  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  and  Greece,  for  ages 
before  such  a  people  as  the  Jewish  nation  were  known 
to  be  in  existence.       (See   the   chapter  on   Bacchus,  in   this 

DiEGESIS.) 

Christianity,  however,  is  not  so  essentially  connected 
with  the  Jewish  religion  as  to  stand  or  fall  with  it.  Paley 
and  other  of  the  shrewder  advocates  of  the  established 
faith  have  intimated  their  wish  that  the  two  systems 
were  considered  as  more  independent  of  each  other 
than  they  are  generally  held  to  be.  There  might  be 
evidence  enough  left  for  the  Christian  religion,  though 

*  &iog  which  is  the  source  of  the  iEolic  dialect,  or  Latin  Deus,  from  &s(ij  ^nty, 
currere,  to  run  as  do  the  planets. 

The  Grecian  •philosophers  generally  believed  that  nature  is  God.  No 
authors  of  any  order  of  Christians  whatever,  in  any  of  their  writings,  give  us 
any  positive  idea  on  the  subject,  nor  indeed  any  negative  one,  not  derived  from 
some  or  other  of  those  philosophers. 

"  The  YesLis  of  the  New  Testament  preached  only  a  sort  of  indeterminate, 
or  at  most,  only  Pharisaical  deism.  Those  who  have  professed  and  called  them- 
selves Christians,  have  been 'hardly  such  characters  as  any  rational  mind  could 
imagine  to  have  been  the  followers  of  such  a  master.  Animated  only  with  a 
furious  zeal  against  idolatry,  to  which  Yesus  does  not  allude,  these  iconoclasts 
(image-breakers )  seem  to  have  maintained  few  positive  metaphysical  dogmata, 
till  they  wanted  excuses  for  plundering  from  one  another  the  plunder  of  Paganism." 
I  take  this  sentence  from  a  treatise,  entitled,  Various  Definitions  of  an  Im- 
portant Word,  p.  18,  in  a  printed  but  unpublished  work  of  a  learned  and  excel- 
lent friend. 

4 


26  STATE    OF    THE    JEWS. 

the  Mosaic  dispensation  were  considered  as  altogether 
fabulous  ;  and  some  have  thought,  that  the  evidence  of 
Christianity  would  gain  by  a  dissolution  of  partnership  ; 
and  a  man  might  be  the  better  Christian,  as  he  certainly 
would  be  better  able  to  defend  his  Christianity,  by 
throwing  t)ver  the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament  as  inde- 
fensible, and  contenting  himself  entirely  with  the  sufficient 
guidance  and  independent  sanctions  of  the  New.  "  The 
law  was  given  by  Moses,  but  grace  and  truth  came  by 
Jesus  Christ,"*  is  an  apothegm  which  Christians  receive  as 
of  the  highest  authority  :  and  yet  no  conceivable  sense 
can  be  found  in  those  words,  short  of  an  indication  not  only 
of  distinctness,  but  of  absolute  contrariety  of  character, 
between  the  two  religions.  "  Grace  and  truth  came  by 
Jesus  Christ,"  in  the  antithesis,  can  imply  nothing  else 
than  that  neither  grace  nor  truth  came  by  Moses  ;  to  say 
nothing  of  those  innumerable  contemptuous  manners  of 
speaking  of  the  old  dispensation,  as  ^'■those  tveak  and  beg- 
garly elements,''''^  and  that  "  hurlhen  ichich  neither  they  nor  their 
fathers  icere  able  to  bear  fX  "  all  that  ever  came  before  me 
are  thieves  and  robbers  ;"§  in  which  Christ  and  the  Apos- 
tles themselves  refer  to  the  religion  of  Moses.  Certainly, 
none  with  whom  we  have  to  deal  would  ever  care  to 
defend  Judaism,  if  once  induced  to  doubt  the  independent 
challenges  of  Christianity.  If  this  be  untenable,  that  may 
very  well  be  left  to  shift  for  itself  in  the  wardrobes  of 
Holly  well-street  and  the  Minories.  "  The  lion  preys  not 
upon  carcases !" 

It  is  unquestionable,  however,  that  even  if  the  gospel 
story  were  altogether  a  romance,  and  all  its  dramatis  per- 
sonce,  as  connected  with  what  is  called  in  poetical  lan- 
guage, its  machinery,  merely  imaginary,  it  is  still  a  romance 
of  that  character,  which  mixes  up  its  fantastical  personages 
with  real  characters,  and  fastens  events  which  never  hap- 
pened, speeches  which  were  never  spoken,  •  and  doings 
which  were  never  done,  on  persons,  times,  and  places 
that  had  a  real  existence,  and  stood  in  the  relations  assign- 
ed to  them.  So  that  the  romance  is  properly  dramatical., 
and  answers  to  the  character  of  such  ingenious  and 
entertaining  fictions,  as  in  our  own  days  are  called 
romances  of  the  particular  century  to  which  they  are 
assigned,  in  which  of  course  we  have  the  Sir  Rowlands, 
Sir  Olivers,  and  Sir  Mortimers  of  the  author's  invention, 

*  John  i.  17.  t  Galat.  ix. 

t  AcU  XV.  10.  §  John  x.  8. 


STATE    OF    THE    JEWS.  27 

transacting-  business  and  holding-  dialogues  with  the  Sala- 
dins,  King-  Richards,  Henrys,  and  Edwards  of  real  his- 
tory. Nor  are  there  wanting-  instances  of  plagiarism  in 
the  department  of  fiction.  A  shrewd  novelist  will  often 
avail  himself  of  an  old  story,  will  change-  the  scene  of 
action  from  one  country  to  another,  throw  it  further  back, 
or  bring-  it  lower  down,  in  the  order  of  time  ;  and  make 
the  heroes  of  the  original  conceit,  contemporaries  and 
comrades  of  either  an  earlier  or  a  later  race  of  real  per- 
sonag-es. 

"  Josephus,  and  heathen  authors  have  made  mention 
of  Herod,  Archelaus,  Pontius  Pilate,  and  other  persons 
of  note,  whose  names  we  meet  with  in  the  Gospels  and 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  have  delivered  nothing  mate- 
rial concerning  their  characters,  posts,  and  honours,  that 
is  different  from  what  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament 
have  said  of  them." 

Such  is  the  first  of  Dr.  Lardner's  arguments  for  the 
credibility  of  the  gospel  history,  the  sophism  of  which 
will  in  an  instant  start  into  observance,  upon  putting  the 
simple  questions — What  is  material  .''  And  is  it  no  fatal 
deficiency,  that  they  should  have  omitted  to  mention 
what  they  by  no  possibility  could  have  omitted  to  mention, 
had  the  personages  so  spoken  of  been  so  concerned  in 
the  gospel  history,  as  they  are  therein  represented  to  have 
been  ? 

One  of  the  most  striking  coincidences  of  the  scriptural 
and  profane  history,  is  the  reference  to  the  death  of  Herod, 
in  Acts  xii.  21.  23,  as  compared  with  the  account  given 
by  Josephus,  whose  words  are,  "  Having  now  reigned 
three  whole  years  over  all  Judea,  Herod  went  to  the 
city  Csesarea.  Here  he  celebrated  shows  in  honour  of 
Ctesar.  On  the  second  day  he  came  into  the  theatre 
dressed  in  a  robe  of  silver  of  most  curious  workmanship. 
The  rays  of  the  sun,  then  just  rising,  reflected  from  so 
splendid  a  garb,  gave  him  a  majestic  and  awful  appear- 
ance. In  a  short  time  they  began  in  several  parts  of  the 
theatre  flattering  acclamations,  which  proved  pernicious  to 
him.  They  called  him  a  god,  and  entreated  him  to  be  pro- 
pitious to  them,  saying,  '  Hitherto  we  have  respected  you 
as  a  man,  but  now  we  acknowledge  you  to  be  more  than 
mortal.'  The  King  neither  reproved  those  persons,  nor 
rejected  the  impious  flattery.      Soon  after  this,*  casting 

*  Avay.vipai;  S'nr  Tov  (ivflwva  T>jg  tavrH  xftpaXtji;  vntQuadfLoufvof  cifcv  cm 
ajfotrti  rivog  «yyt/.or  T5  r«roi' f vi^iic  trofiOfi-  y.uxvtr  iiiai  Toi'  y.ai  nore  twv  ayaStuv 
yevofitvov  xai  fiuxafjiov  sf/jv  oSvv>iv. — Antiq-  lib.  19.  c.  8.  sect.  2. 


ZO  STATE    OF    THE    JEWS. 

his  eyes  upwards,  he  saw  an  owl  sitting  upon  a  rope  over 
his  head.  He  perceived  it  to  be  a  messenger  of  evil  to  him, 
as  it  had  been  before  of  his  prosperity,  and  was  grieved  at 
heart.  Immediately  after  this  he  was  aftected  with  ex- 
tremely violent  pains  in  his  bowels,  and  turning  to  his 
friends,  in  anguish  said,  '  I,  your  God,  am  required  to 
leave  this  world ;  fate  instantly  confuting  the  false 
applauses  you  have  bestowed  on  me  ;  I,  who  have  been 
called  immortal,  am  hurried  away  to  death  ;  but  God's 
appointment  must  be  submitted  to.'  These  pains  in  his 
bowels  continually  tormenting  him,  he  died  on  the  fifth 
day,  in  the  fiftyfourth  year  of  his  age,  and  of  his  reign  the 
seventh." 

There  is  a  curious  ambiguity  in  the  Greek  word  for 
messenger  (angelos),  of  which  JEusebius  availing  himself, 
says  nothing  about  the  owl,  but  gives  as  the  text  of 
Josephus,  that  he  beheld  an  angel  hanging  over  his  head  upon 
a  rope,  and  this  he  knew  immediately  to  be  an  omen  of  evil.* 
Lardner  justly  reproves  this  fault  in  Eusebius,  but  has 
no  reproof  for  the  author  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  who 
was  privileged  to  improve  the  story  still  farther  by  adding 
that  the  angel  of  the  Lord  smote  him,  because  he  gave  not  God 
the  clary,  (i.  e.  the  spangles  and  gaudery  of  his  silver 
dress.)  This  Herod  was  a  deputy  king  holding  his  power 
under  the  appointment  of  Caius  Caligula. 

The  Pharisees  were  a  sect  of  self-righteous  and  sanc- 
timonious hypocrites,  ready  to  play  into  and  keep  up 
any  religious  farce  that  might  serve  to  invest  them  with 
an  imaginary  sanctity  of  character,  and  increase  their 
influence  over  the  minds  of  the  majority,  Avhose  good 
nature  and  ignorance  in  all  ages  and  countries,  is  but  ever 
too  ready  to  subscribe  the  claims  thus  made  upon  it. 

They  were  the  Quakers  of  their  day,  a  set  of  commer- 
cial, speculating  thieves,  who  expressed  their  religion  in  the 
eccentricity  of  their  garb  ;  and,  under  professions  of  ex- 
traordinary punctiliousness  and  hiunanity,  Avcre  the  most 
over-reaching,  oppressive,  and  inexorable  of  the  human 
race.  Of  this  sort  was  the  apostolic  chief  of  sinners,  and 
this  character  he  discovers  through  all  accounts  of  his 
life  and  writings,  that  have  entailed  the  curse  of  his  ex- 
ample on  mankind. 

The  Sadducees  were  a  set  of  materialists,  who,  as  they 
were   too   sensible   to  be  imposed  on  themselves,  were 

rivog.      Terov  tvi&vg  erotjnt  xuxw  tiiat  uitioi. — Euseb.  Ec.  His.  lib.  2.  c.  9.  B. 


STATE    OF    THE    JEWS.  29 

the  less  disposed  to  cajole  others.  They  were  the  most 
respectable  part  of  the  Jewish  community,  and  by  the 
influence  of  their  more  rational  tenets  and  more  moral 
example,  served  to  infuse  that  leaven  of  reason  and 
virtue,  without  which,  the  frame  of  society  could  hardly  be 
held  together. 

It  is  enough  to  know,  in  addition  to  the  more  than 
enough  that  every  body  may  know,  of  the  Mosaic  insti- 
tutions, that  the  pretensions  of  the  Jews,  as  a  nation,  to 
philosophy,  never  exceeded  that  of  the  dark  and  hidden 
•science  which  they  called  the  Cabbala,  which,  like  their 
hidden  theology,  was  nothing  more  than  the  Oriental 
philosophy,  plagiarized  and  modelled  to  their  own  con- 
ceit, and  a  crude  jumble  of  the  various  melancholy 
notions,  which  had  forced  themselves  upon  their  minds 
in  the  course  of  their  ramblings  into  the  adjacent  coun- 
tries of  Egypt  and  Phcenicia,  and  the  little  that  ignorance 
itself  could  not  help  learning,  in  the  course  of  their  traffic 
with  the  Greeks,  Persians,  and  Arabians. 

Their  sacred  scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  contain 
no  reference  to  the  Platonic  doctrine  of  a  future  state.* 
Though  the  metaphysical  notion  of  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  had  been  inculcated  and  embraced  in  India,  in 
Assyria,  in  Egypt,  and  in  Gaul,  and  was  believed  with 
so  influential  and  practical  a  faith,  that  its  votaries  would 
lend  their  money  to  be  returned  them  again  in  the  other 
world,!  (a  proof  of  sincerity  less  equivocal  than  martyr- 
dom itself.)  Yet  this  doctrine  appears  to  have  been 
wholly  unknown  to  the  Jewish  legislator,  and  is  but 
darkly  insinuated  in  any  part  of  the  prophetical  writ- 
ings.|  Hence  the  Sadducees,  who,  according  to  Jose- 
phus,  respected  only  the  authority  of  the  Pentateuch  (or 
five  books  of  Moses),  had  no  belief  in  a  resurrection,  angels 
or  spirits,  or  any  such  chimerical  hypostases.  Nor  does 
the  Christ  of  the  New  Testament  seem  to  have  had  the 
least  idea  of  the  possible  existence  of  the  soul,  in  a  state 

*  The  only  reward  proposed  for  obedience  to  the  law  of  God,  was,  that  attached 
to  the  fifth,  which  is  called  by  the  Apostle,  the  first  commandment  with  promise 
— "  that  thy  days  may  be  long  in  the  land." 

t  Vetus  ille  nios  Gallorum  occurrit,  (says  Valerius  Maxiinus,  1.  2.  c.  6.  p.  10.) 
quos  memoria  proditum  est,  pecuniae  mntuas.  dare  solitos  quae  his,  apud  inftros 
redderentur. 

:t:  It  is  better  for  thee  to  enter  halt  into  life,  than  having  two  feet  to  be  cast 
into  hell.  It  is  better  for  thee  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  with  one  eye, 
than  having  two  eyes,  to  be  cast  into  hell  fire. — Mark  ix.  45.  47.  Here  was  no  idea 
of  heaven,  or  the  state  of  the  blessed,  above  a  hospital  of  incurables. 

4* 


30  STATE    OF    PHILOSOPHY. 

of  separation  from  the  body.  All  his  attempts  to  alarm 
the  cowardice  and  weakness  of  his  hearers,  are  founded 
on  the  assiniiption,  that  the  body  must  accompany  the  soul 
in  its  anabasis  to  heaven,  or  its  descent  to  hell,  and  indeed 
that  there  was  no  virtual  distinction  between  them.  It 
must,  however,  be  admitted  to  be  a  good  and  valid  apology 
for  the  ondssion^that  none  of  his  followers  have  been 
able  to  supply  the  deficiency. 


CHAPTER  V. 

STATE    OF    PHILOSOPHY. 

There  is  nothing  that  can  be  known  of  past  ages,  known 
with  more  unquestionable  certainty,  than  that  ?n,  about, 
and  immediately  after  the  epocha  of  time  ascribed  to  the 
dawning  of  divine  light,  the  human  mind  seems  generally 
to  have  suffered  an  eclipse.  The  arts  and  sciences,  intel- 
ligence and  virtue,  were  smitten  with  an  unaccountable 
palsy.  The  mind  of  man  lost  all  its  energies,  and  sunk 
under  a  generally  prevailing  imbecility.  We  look  in  vain 
among  the  successors  of  Cicero,  Livy,  Tacitus,  Horace, 
and  Virgil,  the  statesmen,  orators,  and  poets  of  the 
golden  age  of  literature,  for  a  continuatipn  of  the  series  of 
such  ornaments  of  human  nature.  A  blight  had  smitten 
the  growth  of  men's  understandings  ;  not  only  no  more 
such  clever  men  rose  up,  but  with  very  few  exceptions, 
no  more  such  men  as  could  have  appreciated  the  talents 
of  their  predecessors,  or  possessing  so  much  as  the  rela- 
tive degree  of  capacity,  necessary  to  be  sensible  .of  the 
superiority  that  had  preceded  them.  After  reasonings  so 
just,  and  eloquence  so  powerful,  that  even  so  late  after 
the  revival  of  literature  as  the  present  day,  mankind 
have  not  yet  learned  to  reason  more  justly,  or  to  declaim 
more  powerfully  ;  a  race  of  barbarous  idiots  possessed 
themselves  of  the  seat  of  science  and  the  muses  ;  and  all 
distinction  and  renown  was  sought  and  obtained  by  absur- 
dities disgraceful  to  reason,  and  mortifications  revolting 
to  nature.  "  The  groves  of  the  academy,  the  gardens  ot 
Epicurus,  and  even  the  porticoes  of  the  Stoics,  were 
deserted  as  so  many  different  schools  of  scepticism  or 
impiety,  and  many  among  the  Romans  were  desirous  Ihat 


STATE    OF    PHILOSOPHY.  31 

the  writings  of  Cicero  should  be  condemned  and  suppress- 
ed by  the  authority  of  the  Senate."* 

The  reasoning  of  which  all  men  see  the  absiirdity, 
when  applied  by  the  victorious  Caliph  to  justify  the  de- 
struction of  the  library  of  Alexandria, f  appeared  unan- 
swerable when  adduced  on  the  side  of  the  true  faith. 

Omar  issued  his  commands  for  the  destruction  of  that 
celebrated  library,  to  his  general,  Amrus,  in  these  words  : 
"  As  to  the  books  of  which  you  have  made  mention,  if  there 
be  contained  in  them  what  accords  with  the  book  of  God 
(meaning  the  Koran  of  Mahomet),  there  is  without  them, 
in  the  book  of  God,  all  that  is  sufficient.  But  if  there  be 
any  thing  in  them  repugnant  to  that  book,  we  in  no  respect 
want  them.  Order  them,  therefore,  to  be  all  destroyed." 
— Harris. 

Precisely  similar  in  spirit,  and  almost  in  form,  are  the 
respective  decrees  of  the  Emperors  Constantine  and 
Theodosius,  which  generally  ran  in  the  words,  "  that  all 
writings  adverse  to  the  claims  of  the  Christian  religion, 
in  the  possession  of  whomsoever  they  should  be  found, 
should  be  committed  to  the  fire,"  as  the  pious  Emperors 
would  not  that  those  things  which  they  took  upon  them- 
selves to  assume,  tended  to  provoke  God  to  wrath,  should 
be  allowed  to  offend  the  minds  of  the  pious. J  Mr.  Gib- 
bon, in  his  usual  strain  of  caustic  sarcasm,  mentions  the 
elaborate  treatises  which  the  philosophers,  more  espe- 
cially the  prevailing  sect  of  the  new  Platonicians,  who 
endeavoured  to  extract  allegorical  wisdom  from  the 
fictions  of  the  Greek  poets,  composed  ;  and  the  many  ela- 
borate treatises  against  the  faith  of  the  Gospel,  which 
have  since  been  committed  to  the  flames,  by  the  prudence 
of  orthodox  emperors.  The  large  treatise  of  Porphyry 
against  the  Christians,  consisted  of  tiiirty  books,  and  was 
composed  in  Sicily  about  the  year  270.  It  was  against 
the  writings  of  this  great  man  especially,  who  had 
acquired  the  honourable  addition  to  his  name,  of  the 
VIRTUOUS,  that  the  exterminatory  decree  of  Theodosius 
was  more  immediately  directed.  There  is  little  doubt, 
that  had  the  discoveries  his  writings  would  have  made, 
been  permitted  to  come  to  general  knowledge,  all  the  pre- 
tended external  evidence  of  Christianity  must  have  been 

*  Gibbon,  ch.  16. 

t  The  destruction  of  this  celebrated  library  gave  safety  to  the  evidences  of  the 
Christian  religion. 

t  See  the  decrees  quoted  in  my  Syntagma,  p.  35, 


32  STATE    OF    PHILOSOPHY. 

given  up  as  wholly  untenable.  But  while  what  the  virtu- 
ous Porphyry  had  really  written,  was  committed  to  the 
flames,  a  worse  outrage  was  coiimiitted  against  his  repu- 
tation, by  Christians,  who,  aware  of  the  great  influence  of 
his  name  and  authority,  ascribed  the  vile  trash  which  they 
had  composed  themselves  to  him,  for  the  purpose  of  maldng 
him  seem  to  have  made  the  admissions  which  it  was  for 
the  interest  of  Christianity  that  he  should  have  made,  or 
to  have  attacked  it  so  feebly,  as  might  serve  to  show  the 
advantage  of  their  defences.  The  celebrated  treatise  on 
the  Philosophy  of  Oracles,  which  even  the  pious  Dod- 
dridge, and  the  learned  Macknight,  have  ascribed  to  this 
great  man,  and  availed  themselves  of,  for  that  fraudulent 
purpose,  has,  by  the  greater  fidelity  and  honesty  of  Lard- 
ner,  been  demonstrably  traced  home  to  the  forging  hands 
of  Christian  piety.* 

Before  the  Christian  religion  had  made  any  perceptible 
advance  among  mankind,  two  grand  and  influential  princi- 
ples characterized  all  the  moving  intelligence  that  then  ex- 
isted in  the  world  ;  and  to  these  two  principles,  Christianity 
owed  its  triumph  over  all  the  wisdom  and  honesty  that 
feebly  opposed  its  progress.     These  principles  were, — the 

SUPPOSED  NECESSITY  OF  DECEIVING  THE  VULGAR,  and 
THE  IMAGINED  DUTY  OF  CULTIVATING  AND  PERPETU- 
ATING IGNORANCE.  Of  the  fomicr  of  these  principles, 
the  most  distinguished  advocates  were  the  whole  train 
of  deceptive  legislators  ;  Moses  in  Palestine,  Mneues  (if 
he  be  not  the  same)  in  Egypt,  Minos  in  Crete,  Lycurgus 
in  Lacedasmon,  Numa  in  Rome,  Confucius  in  China, 
Triptolemus,  who  pretended  the  inspirations  of  Ceres, 
Zaleucus  of  Minerva,  Solon  of  Epimenides,  Zamolxis  of 
Vesta,  Pythagoras,  and  Plato. f  Euripides  maintained  that 
in  the  early  state  of  society,  some  wise  men  insisted  on 
the  necessity  of  darkening  truth  with  falsehood,  and  of 
persuading  men  that  there  is  an  immortal  deity,  who  hears 
and  sees  and  understands  our  actions,  whatever  we  may 
think  of  that  matter  ourselves.:):  Stmbo  shows  at  great 
length  the  general  use  and  important  oflects  of  theological 
fables.  "  It  is  not  possible  for  a  philosopher  to  conduct  by 
reasoning  a  multitude  of  women,  and  of  the  low  vulgar, 
and  thus  to   invite  them  to  piety,  holiness,  and   faith  ; 

*  JTtQi  T»;c  IX  Xoyiixr  (ft}.ono(piuc.     See  this  expose  in  my  Syntagma,  p.  116. 
t  It  will  be  seen  that  1  have  largely  availed  myself  of  my  friend's  printed  but 
unpublished  work  on  Deisidemony. 

t  Quoted  in  the  psuudo-Plutaichean  treatise,  deplacitis  philos.  B.  I,  Ch.  7. 


STATE    OF    PHILOSOPHY.  33 

but  the  philosopher  must  also  make  use  of  superstition, 
and  not  omit  the  invention  of  fables,  and  the  perfonnincc 
of  wonders.  For  the  lightning,  and  the  ffigis,  and  the 
trident,  and  the  thyrsolonchal  arms  of  the  gods,  are  but 
fables  ;  and  so  is  all  ancient  theology.  But  the  founders 
of  states  adopted  them  as  bugbears  to  frighten  the  weak- 
minded."* 

Varro  says  plainly,  "that  there  are  many  truths  which 
it  is  useless  for  the  vulgar  to  know,  and  many  falsities 
which  it  is  fit  that  the  people  should  not  know  are  falsi- 
ties."! 

Paul  of  Tarsus,  whose  fourteen  epistles  make  up  the 
greater  part  of  the  bulk  of  the  New  Testament,  repeatedly 
inculcates  and  avows  the  principle  of  deceiving  the 
common  people,  talks  of  his  having  been  upbraided  by 
his  own  converts  with  being  crafty  and  catching  them 
with  gaile,|  and  of  his  known  and  wilful  lies,  abounding  to 
the  glory  of  God.§  For  further  avowals  of  this  prin- 
ciple of  deceit,  the  reader  may  consult  the  chapter  of 
Admissions. 

Accessory  to  the  avowed  and  consecrated  principle  of 
deceit,  was  that  of  ignorance.  St.  Paul,  in  the  most 
explicit  language,  had  taught  and  maintained  the  absolute 
necessity  of  extreme  ignorance,  in  order  to  attain  celestial 
wisdom,  and  gloried  in  the  power  of  the  Almighty  as  des- 
troying the  wisdom  of  the  wise,  and  bringing  to  nothing, 
the  understanding  of  the  prudent ;  and  purposely  choosing 
the  foolish  things,  and  the  weak  things,  and  the  base 
things, II  as  objects  of  his  adoption,  and  vessels  of  his 
grace.  And  St.  Peter,  or.  whoever  was  the  author  of  the 
epistles  ascribed  to  him,  inculcates  the  necessity  of  the 
most  absolute  prostration  of  understanding,  and  of  a  state 
of  mind,  but  little  removed  from  slobbering  idiotcy,  as 
necessary  to  the  acquisition  of  divine  knowledge  ;  that 
even  "  as  new  born  babes,  they  should  desire  the  sincere 
milk  of  the  word,  that  they  might  grow  thereby. "IF 

Upon  the  sense  of  which  doctrine,  the  pious  and 
orthodox  Tertullian  glories   in   the  egregious  ridiculous- 

*  Dr.  Isaac  Vossius,  when  asked  what  had  become  of  a  certain  man  of 
letters,  answered  bluntly,  "  he  has  turned  country  pmson,  and  is  deceiving 
the  vulgar." — See  Desmaiseaux's  Life  of  St.  Evremond. 

t  August,  de  Cio.  Dei.     B.  4. 

t  2  Corinth,  xii.  16.  §  Romans  iii.  7.  II  1  Corinth,  i.  27. 

tr  1  Peter  ii.  2.  1  Thess.  ii.  7,  "Even  as  a  nurse  cherisheth  her  chil- 
dren." Compare  also  2  Corinth,  xi.  23,  where  Paul  says,  "  I  speak  as  a  fool," 
which  he  need  not  have  said. 


34  STATE    OF    PHILOSOPHY. 

ness  of  the  Chnstiaii  religion,  and  the  debihtating  effects 
which  the  sincere  belief  of  it  had  produced  on  his  own 
understanding  :  his  main  argument  for  it,  being,  "  I  reve- 
rence it,  because  it  is  contemptible  ;  I  adore  it,  because  it 
is  absurd  ;  I  believe  it,  because  it  is  impossible."* 

Nothing  was  considered  more  obnoxious  to  the  cau^e 
of  the  gospel,  than  the  good  sense  contained  in  the 
writings  of  its  opponents.  The  inveteracy  against  learn- 
ing, of  Gregory  the  Great,  to  whom  this  country  owes  its 
conversion  to  the  gospel,  was  so  excessive,  that  he 
not  only  was  angry  with  an  Archbishop  of  Vienna,  for 
suflering  grammar  to  be  taught  in  his  diocese,  but  studied 
to  write  bad  Latin  himself,  and  boasted  that  he  scorned 
to  conform  to  the  rules  of  grammar,  whereby  he  might 
seem  to  resemble  a  heathen. f  The  spirit  of  super- 
stition quite  suppressed  all  the  efforts  of  learning  and 
philosophy. 

Christianity  was  first  sent  to  the  shores  of  England  .by 
the  missionary  zeal  of  Pope  Gregory  the  First,  not  earlier 
than  the  sixth  or  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century. 
Our  King  Alfred,  who  is  said  to  have  founded  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford,  in  the  ninth  century,  lamented  that 
there  was  at  that  time  not  a  priest  in  his  dominions 
who  understood  Latin,:]:  and  even  for  some  centuries 
after,  we  find  that  our  Christian  bishops  and  prelates, 
the  "teachers,  spiritual  pastors,  and  masters,"  of  the 
whole  Christian  community,  were  Marksmen,  i.  e.  they  sup- 
plied by  the  sign  of  the  cross,  their  inability  to  write 
their  own  names. § 

Though  philology,  eloquence,  poetry,  and  history,  were 
sedulously  cultivated  among  those  of  the  Greeks  and 
Latins,  who  in  the  fourth  century  still  held  out  their 
resistance  against  the  Christian  religion  :  its  just  and 
honourable  historian,  Mosheim,  admonishes  his  readers 
by  no  means  to  conclude  that  any  acquaintance  with  the 
sciences  had  become  imiversal  in  the  chiu'ch  of  Christ.|| 
"  It  is  certain,  (he  adds)  that  the  greatest  part  both  of  the 
bishops  and  presbyters,  were  men  entirely  destitute  of 
learning  and  education.  Besides,  that  savage  and  illiterate 
party,  who  looked  upon  all  sorts  of  erudition,  particularly 

*  Dc  C!imc  Christ!  Scmleri,  F.dit.  Halae  Magdeburgicse,  1770,  vol.  3,  p.  352. 
Quoted  in  Syntagma,  p;ige  106. 

t  Dr.  Mamleville's  Tree  Thouglits,  page  152. 

$  See  History  of  I'nghind,  almost  any  one. 

§  Evans's  Sketches. 

II  Ecclesiastical  History,  Cent.  4,  part  2,  ch.ip.  1,  sec.  5,  p.  346. 


STATE    OF    PHILOSOPHY,  35 

that  of  a  philosophical  kind,  as  pernicious,  and  even  de- 
structive of  true  piety  and  religion,  increased  both  in 
number  and  authority.  The  ascetics,  monks,  and  hermits, 
augmented  the  strength  of  this  barbarous  faction,  and  not 
only  the  women,  but  also  all  who  took  solemn  looks,  sordid 
garments,  and  a  love  of  solitude,  for  real  piety,  (and  in 
this  number  we  comprehend  the  generality  of  mankind) 
were  vehemently  prepossessed  in  their  favour." 

Happily  the  security  and  permanency  given  to  the  once 
won  triumphs  of  learning  over  her  barbarous  foes,  by  the 
invention  of  the  art  of  printing,*  the  now  extensive 
spread  of  rational  scepticism,  and  the  never  again  to  be 
surrendered  achievements  of  superior  intelligence,  have 
forced  upon  the  advocates  of  ignorance,  the  necessity  of 
expressing  their  still  too  manifest  suspicions  and  hostility 
against  the  cause  of  general  learning,  in  more  guarded  and 
qualified  terms.  But  what  they  still  loould  have,  the 
sameness  of  their  principle,  the  identity  of  their  purpose, 
and  the  sincerity  of  their  conviction  that  the  cultivation 
of  the  mind,  and  the  continuance  of  the  Christian  religion, 
are  incompatible,  is  indicated  in  the  institution  of  an 
otherwise  superfluous  university  in  the  city  of  London, 
for  the  avowed  purpose  of  counteracting  the  well  foreseen 
eflTects  of  suffering  learning  to  get  her  pass  into  the  world 
untrammelled  with  the  fetters  of  superstition.  The  ad- 
vertisement of  subscriptions  to  the  intended  King's  Col- 
lege, in  the  Times  newspaper,  even  so  late  as  the  16th  of 
this  present  month  of  August,  in  which  I  write  from  this 
prison,  in  the  cause  and  advocacy  of  intellectual  free- 
dom, avows  the  principle  in  these  words  : — "  We,  the 
undersigned,  fully  concurring  in  the  fundamental 
PRINCIPLES  on  which  it  is  proposed  to  be  established, 
namely,  that  every  principle  of  general  education  for  the 
youth  of  a  Christian  community,  ought  to  comprise  in- 
struction in  the  Christian  religion,  as  an  indispensable  part ; 
without  which,  the  acquisition  of  other  branches  of  know- 
ledge, will  be  conducive  neither  to  the  happiness,  nor  to 
the  welfare  of  the   state."     In   other   words,    and  most 

*  In  the  year  1444,  Caxton  published  the  first  book  ever  printed  in  England. 
In  1474,  the  then  Bishop  of  London,  in  a  convocation  of  his  clergy,  said,  "  If  we 
do  not  destroy  this  dangerous  invention,  it  will  one  day  destroy  us." 
The  reader  should  compare  Pope  Leo  the  Tenth's  avowal,  that  "  it  was  ivell 
knotvn  how  profitable  this  fable  of  Christ  has  been  to  us  ;"  with  Mr.  Beard's 
Apology  for  it,  in  his  third  letter  to  the  Rev.  Robert  Taylor,  page  74,  and  Arch- 
deacon Paley's  declaration,  that  "  he  could  not  afford  to  have  a  conscience.^' — 
See  Life  of  the  Author  attached  to  his  work  on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,  p.  11. 
London  12nio.  edit.  1826. 


3b  STATE    OF    PHILOSOPHY. 

unequivocally  in  the  sense  intended,  the  utmost  extent  of 
learning-  which  the  university  propounds,  will  never  reach 
to  the  rendering  any  of  its  members  competent  to  conflict 
with  the  learning  of  the  enemies  of  the  Christian  faith; 
to  produce  either  orators  who  dare  attempt  to  vie  on 
equal  grounds  with  their  orators  ;  readers,  who  dare  trust 
their  conscious  inferiority  of  vuiderstanding  to  reacli  or 
writers  that  shall  have  ability  or  disposition  to  answer 
their  writings.  The  old  barbarous  policy  of  Goth  and 
Vandal  ignorance,  to  suppress  and  commit  to  the  flames 
the  writings  of  Infidels,  to  decry  their  virtues,  and  to 
imprison  their  persons  ;  to  shelter  conscious  weakness 
under  airs  of  aflected  contempt ;  to  crush  the  man  when 
they  can  no  longer  cope  with  his  argument,  to  destroy 
the  reasoner,  when  they  dare  not  encounter  his  reasoning, 
is  still  the  dernier  resource  of  a  system,  that  cannot  be 
defended  by  other  means,  but  must  needs  be  left  in  the 
dust  from  whence  it  sprang,  whenever  the  mind  of  man 
shall  be  allowed  to  get  a  fair  start,  without  being  clogged 
with  it. 

"  In  consequence  of  the  conquests  of  the  Romans,  there 
arose  imperceptibly,  but  entirely  by  the  operation  of 
natural  and  most  obvious  causes,  a  new  kind  of  religion, 
formed  by  the  mixture  of  the  ancient  rites  of  the  con- 
quered nations  with  those  of  the  Romans.  Those  nations, 
who  before  their  subjection,  had  their  own  gods,  and  their 
own  particular  religious  institutions,  were  persuaded  by 
degrees^  to  admit  into  their  worship,  a  great  number  of  the 
sacred  rites  and  customs  of  their  conquerors."*  And  from 
this  conjunction,  helped  on  or  retarded  from  time  to  time, 
by  those  exacerbations  and  paroxysms,  which  ever  attend 
the  fever  of  religion,  as  it  afflicts  the  sincerely  religious, 
and  the  policy  of  those  wicked  tacticians,  who  have  always 
known  how  to  raise  or  lower  the  spiritual  temperament  to 
their  purpose,  arose  that  heterogeneous  compound  of  all 
that  was  good  and  all  that  was  bad  in  all  religions,  which, 
after  having  existed  under  various  names  and  modifica- 
tions, and  gained  by  gradual  usurpations  a  considerable 
ascendancy  over  any  or  all  the  idolatrous  forms  from 
which  it  had  been  collected,  began  to  be  called  Chris- 
tianity. "The  wiser  part  of  mankind,  however,  (says 
Mosheim)  about  the  time  of  Christ's  birth,  looked  upon 
the  whole  system  of  religion,  as  a  just  object  of  contempt 
and  ridicule."! 

*  Mosheim,  Cent.  1.  t  Mosheim,  Cent.  I.  Ch.  1. 


STATE    OF    PHILOSOPHY.  37 

"About  the  time  of  Christ's  appearance  upon  earth,* 
there  were  two  kinds  of  philosophy  which  prevailed  among 
the  civilized  nations.  One  was  the  philosophy  of  the 
Greeks,  adopted  also  by  the  Romans  ;  and  the  other,  that 
of  the  Orientals,  which  had  a  g-reat  nmnber  of  votaries 
in  Persia,  Syria,  Chaldea,  Egypt,  and  even  among  the 
Jews." 

The  Greek  and  Roman  mode  of  thought  and  reasoning, 
was  designated  by  the  simple  title  of  PHiLosopHT.f 

That  of  the  eastern  nations,  as  opposed  to  it,  was  called 
Gnosticism.]: 

The  Philosophy,  signified  only  the  love  and  pursuit  of 
wisdom. 

The  Gnosis,  signified  the  perfection  and  full  attainment 
of  wisdom  itself. 

The  followers  of  both  these  systems,  as  we  might  natu- 
rally suppose,  split  and  subdivided  into  innumerable  sects 
and  parties.  It  must  be  observed,  however,  that  while 
the  Philosophers,  or  those  of  the  Grecian  and  Roman 
school,  were  infinitely  divided,  and  held  no  common  prin- 
ciple of  union  among  themselves,  some  of  them  being 
opposed  to  all  religion  whatever  ;  the  Gnostics,  or  adhe- 
rents of  the  oriental  system,  deduced  all  their  various 
tenets  from  one  fundamental  principle,  that  of  their  com- 
mon deism,  and  universally  professed  themselves  to  be  the 
restorers  of  the  knowledge  of  God,  which  was  lost  in  the 
world.  St.  Paul  mentions  and  condemns  both  these  modes 
of  thought  and  reasoning;  that  of  the  Greeks,  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  and  that  of  the  Orientals,  in  his 
first  to  Timothy. § 

The  Gnosis,  or  Gnosticism,  comprehends  the  doctrine 
of  the  Magi, II  the  philosophy  of  the  Persians,  Chaldeans, 
and  Arabians,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  Indians  and  Egyp- 
tians. It  is  distinctly  to  be  traced  in  the  text  and  doctrines 
of  the  New  Testament.  It  was  from  the  bosom  of  this 
pretended  oriental  wisdom,  that  the  chiefs  of  those  sects, 
which,  in  the  three  first  centuries,  perplexed  the  Christian 
church,  originally  issued.  The  name  itself  signified,  that 
its   professors   taught   the   way  to  the  true  knowledge  of  th& 

*  Our  author  means  any  time  about  or  near  the  era  of  Augustas. 

t  H  <Pi\o<rcpi!t.  t  H  Tvaicr/c. 

§  Beware,  lest  any  man  spoil  you  through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit. — Coloss. 
ii.  8.  Avoiding  profane  and  vain  babblings,  and  oppositions  of  science,  falsely  so 
called.— 1  Tim.  vi.  20. 

II  The  Magi,  or  wise  men  of  the  east,  (Matthew  ii.  1,)  i.  e.  the  Brahmins,  who 
first  got  up  the  allegorical  story  of  Chrishna. 

5 


38  ADMISSIONS    OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

Deity.  Their  most  disting'uished  sect  inculcated  the 
notion  of  a  triumvirate  of  beings,  in  which  the  Supreme 
Deity  was  distinguished  both  from  the  material  evil  prin- 
ciple, and  from  the  creator  of  this  sublunary  world. 

The  Philosophy,  comprehended  the  Epicureans,  the 
most  virtuous  and  rational  of  miiii,  who  maintained  that 
wisely  consulted  pleasure,  v/as  the  ultimate  end  of  man  ; 
the  Academics,  who  placed  the  height  of  wisdom  in  doubt 
and  scepticism  ;  the  Stoics,  Avho  maintained  a  fortitude 
indifferent  to  all  events  ;  the  ^'Aristotelians,  who,  after  their 
master,  Aristotle,  held  the  most  subtle  disputations  con- 
cerning God,  religion,  and  the  social  duties,  maintaining 
that  the  nature  of  God  resembles  the  principle  that  gives 
motion  to  a  machine,  that  it  is  happy  in  the  contemplation 
of  itself,  and  entirely  regardless  of  human  affairs  ;  the 
Platonists,  from  their  master,  Plato,  who  taught  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity,  of  the 
manifestation  of  a  divine  man,  who  should  be  crucified, 
and  the  eternal  rewards  and  punishments  of  a  future  life  ; 
and  from  all  these  resulting,  the  Eclectics,  who,  as  their 
name  signifies,  elected  and  chose  what  they  held  to  be 
wise  and  rational,  out  of  the  tenets  of  all  sects,  and  rejected 
whatever  was  considered  futile  and  pernicious.  The 
Eclectics  held  Plato  in  the  highest  reverence.  Their 
college  or  chief  establishment  was  at  Alexandria  in  Egypt. 
Their  founder  was  supposed  to  have  been  one  Potamon, 
The  most  indubitable  testimonies  prove,  that  this  Philo- 
sophy was  in  a  flourishing  state,  at  the  period  assigned  to 
the  birth  of  Christ.  The  Eclectics  are  the  same  whom  we 
find  described  as  the  Therapeuts  or  Essenes  of  Philo,  and 
whose  sacred  writings  are,  by  Eusebius,  shown  to  be  the 
same  as  our  gospels.  Nought,  but  the  supposed  expediency 
of  deceiving  the  vulgar,  and  of  perpetuating  ignorance, 
binders  the  historian  to  whom  I  am,  for  the  substance  of 
this  chapter,  so  much  indebted,  from  acknowledging  the 
fact,  that  in  every  rational  sense  that  can  be  attached  to 
the  word,  they  were  the  authors  and  real  founders  of 
Christianity. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ADMISSIONS    OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

In  studying  the  writings  of  the  early  advocates  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  fathers  of  the  Christian  church  ;  where  we 
should  naturally  look  for  the  language  that  would  indicate 


ADMISSIONS    OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS.  39 

the  real  occurrence  of  the  facts  of  the  gospel,  if  real 
occurrences  they  had  ever  been  ;  not  only  do  we  jfind  no 
such  sort  of  language,  but  every  where,  find  we,  any  sort 
of  sophistical  ambages,  raniblings  from  the  subject,  and 
evasions  of  the  very  business  before  them,  as  if  of  purpose 
to  balk  our  research,  and  insult  our  scepticism.  If  we 
travel  to  the  very  sepulchre  of  Christ,  we  have  only  to 
discover  that  he  was  never  there  :  history  seeks  evidence 
of  his  existence  as  a  man,  but  finds  no  more  trace  of  it, 
than  of  the  shadow  that  flitted  across  the  wall.  The  star 
of  Bethlehem  shone  not  upon  her  path,  and  the  order  of 
the  universe  was  suspended  without  her  observance.  She 
asks  with  the  Magi  of  the  east,  "  where  is  he  that  is  born 
King  of  the  Jews,"  and  like  them,  finds  no  solution  of  her 
inquiry,  but  the  guidance  that  guides  as  well  to  one  place 
as  another  ;  descriptions  that  apply  to  Esculapius,  as  well 
as  to  Jesus  ;  prophecies,  without  evidence  that  they  were 
ever  prophesied ;  miracles,  which  those  who  are  said  to 
have  seen,  are  said  also  to  have  denied  that  they  saw ; 
narratives  without  authorities,  facts  without  dates,  and 
records  without  names. 

Where  we  should  naturally  look  for  the  evidence  of 
recentness,  and  a  mode  of  expression  suitable  to  the 
character  of  witnesses,  or  of  those  who  had  conversed 
with  witnesses,  we  not  only  find  no  such  modes  of  expres- 
sion ;  but  both  the  recorded  language  and  actions  of  the 
parties,  are  found  to  be  entirely  incongruous,  and  out  of 
keeping  with  the  supposition  of  such  a  character.  We 
find  the  discourses  of  the  very  first  preachers  and  martyrs 
of  this  religion,  outraging  all  chronology,  by  claiming  the 
honours  of  an  even  then  remote  antiquity,  for  the  doctrines 
they  taught. 

1.  We  find  St.  Stephen,*  the  very  first  martyr  of  Chris- 
tianity, in  the  very  city  where  its  stupendous  events  are 
supposed  to  have  happened,  and,  as  our  Bible  chronologies 
inform  us,  within  the  very  year  in  which  they  happened  ; 
and  on  the  very  occasion  on  which  above  all  others  that 
could  be  imagined,  he  must^  and  would  have  borne  testi- 
mony to  them,  as  constituting  the  evidences  of  his  faith, 
the  justification  of  his  conduct,  and  the  grounds  of  his 
martyrdom ;  nevertheless,  bearing  no  such  testimony ; 
yea  !  not  so  much  as  glancing  at  those  events,  but  found- 

*  Stephen,  a  name  of  the  same  order  as  Nicodemus,  Philip,  Andrew,  Alex- 
ander, &c.,  entirely  of  Grecian  origin,  ascribed  to  Jews,  who  never  had  such 
names,  nor  anv  like  them. 


40  ADMISSIONS     OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

ing  his  whole  argument  on  the  ancient  legends  of  the  Jew- 
ish superstition.     What  a  falling  off  is  there  ! 

2.  We  find  St.  Paul,  the  very  first  Apostle  of  the 
Gentiles,  expressly  avowing  that  "he  was  made  a  minister 

,of  the  gospel,  which  had  already  been  preached  to  every 
creature  under  heaven  ;"  (Col.  i.  23,)  preaching  a  god 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  who  had  been  "  believed  on  in  the 
world,"  (1  Tim.  iii.  16.)  before  the  commencement  of  his 
ministry  ;  and  who  therefore  could  have  been  no  such 
person  as  the  man  of  Nazareth,  who  had  certainly  not 
been  preached  at  that  time,  nor  generally  believed  on  in 
the  world,  till  ages  after  that  time. 

3.  We  find  him,  moreover,  out  of  all  character  and  con- 
sistency of  circumstance,  assuming  the  most  intolerant 
airs  of  arrogance,  and  snubbing  Peter  at  Antioch,  as  if  he 
were  nobody,  or  had  absolutely  been  preaching  a  false 
doctrine,  of  which  Paul  were  the  more  proper  judge,  and 
the  higher  authority.  A  circumstance  absolutely  demon- 
strative that  the  Peter  of  the  Acts  was  no  such  person  as 
the  Peter  of  the  Gospels,  who  would  certainly  not  have 
suffered  himself  to  be  called  over  the  coals,  by  one  who 
was  but  a  new  setter  up  in  the  business,  but  would  in  ali 
probability  have  cut  his  ear  off,  rapt  out  a  good  oath  or 
two,  or  knock  him  down  with  his  keys,  for  such  audacious 
presumption. 

4.  It  is  most  essentially  remarkable,  that  as  these  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  bear  internal  evidence  of  being  a  much 
later  production  than  the  epistles  and  gospels,  and  are 
evidently  mixed  up  with  the  journals  of  real  adventures  of 
some  travelling  missionaries  ;  they  are  not  mentioned  with 
the  epistles  and  gospels  which  had  constituted  the  ancient 
writings  of  the  Therapeuta.  Chrysostom,  Bishop  of  Con- 
stantinople, (A.  D.  393,)  informs  us,  that  at  that  time,  "this 
book  was  unknown  to  many,  and  by  others  it  was  des- 
pised." 

5.  Mill,  one  of  the  very  highest  authorities  in  biblical 
literature,  tells  us,  "  that  the  gospels  were  soon  spread 
abroad,  and  came  into  all  men's  hands  ;  but  the  case  was 
somewhat  different  with  the  other  books  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, particvdarly  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  which 
were  not  thought  to  be  so  important,  and  had  few  trans- 
cribers." 

6.  And  Beausobre  acknowledges,  that  the  book  of 
the  Acts,  had  not  at  the  beginning  in  the  eastern  churches, 
the  same  authority  with  the  gospels  and  the  epistles. 


ADMISSIONS     OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS.  41 

7.  Lardner,  (vol.  2,  p.  605,)  would  rather  g"ive  St. 
Chrysostoin  the  lie,  than  surrender  to  the  pregnant  con- 
sequence of  so  fatal  an  admission.  The  gospels  were 
soon  received,  for  they  were  ready  before  the  world  was 
awake.  The  Acts  were  a  second  attempt.  Where  we 
should  look  for  marks  of  distinction,  as  definite  as  those 
which  nmst  necessarily  and  eternally  exist  between  truth 
and  falsehood,  between  divine  wisdom  and  human  weak-, 
ness,  between  what  man  knew  by  the  suggestion  of  his 
own  unassisted  shrewdness,  and  what  he  only  could  have 
known  by  the  further  instruction  of  divine  revelation  ;  not 
only  find  we  no  such  lines  or  characters  of  distinction,  but 
alas  !  in  the  stead  and  place  thereof,  we  find  the  most  entire 
and  perfect  amalgamation,  an  entire  surrender  of  all  chal- 
lenge to  distinction,  a  complete  capitulation,  going  over,  and 
'■'■  hail-fellow-ioell-meV  conjunction,  of  Jesus  and  Jupiter. 
Christianity  and  Paganism  are'  frankly  avowed  to  have 
been  never  more  distinct  from  each  other,  than  six  from 
half-a-dozen,  never  to  have  been  at  variance  or  divided, 
but  by  the  mere  accidental  substitution  of  one  set  of 
names  for  the  other,  and  the  very  trifling  and  immaterial 
misunderstanding,  that  the.  new  nomenclature  had  occa- 
sioned. 

"  Some  of  the  ancientest  writers  of  the  church  have  not 
scrupled  expressly  to  call  the  Athenian  Socrates,  and 
some  others  of  the  best  of  the  heathen  moralists,  by  the 
name  of  Christians,  and  to  affirm,  that  as  the  law  was 
as  it  were  a  schoolmaster,  to  bring  the  Jews  unto  Christ, 
so  true  moral  philosophy  was  to  the  Gentiles  a  prepa- 
rative to  receive  the  gospel." — Clarke's  Evidences  of  JVatural 
arM  Revealed  Religion,  p.  284. 

8.*  "  And  those  who  lived  according  to  the  Logos,  (says 
Clemens  Alexandrinus)  were  really  Christians,  though 
they  have  been  thought  to  be  Atheists  ;  as  Socrates  and 
Heraclitus  were  among  the  Greeks,  and  such  as  resembled 
them." 

9.f  For  God,  says  Origen,  revealed  these  things  to  them, 
and  whatever  things  have  been  well  spoken. 

10.|  And  if  there  had  been  any  one  to  have  collected 

*  Kai  01  fitra  /.oya  (itiuocivrtg,  ^rqiortavot  tiffj,  x'av  aS'cot  cvouio&tjaav  oiov  (f 
EXXrjot  yjev  StaxQaTtjg  xai  HqaxXtirog  xai  oi  ofiotot  avTotg. — Clemens  Alex.  Strom. 

t  O  Stag  yo'Q  avToig  ravTcc,  xai  oaa  xaXmg  i-ii-txrai  ttpavtqwoe . — Orig.  ad  Ceb. 
Bib.  6. 

t  Q.uod- si  extitisset  aliquis  qui  veritatem  sparaam  per  singulos,  per  sectasqne 
dLTusam  colligeret  in  unum,  ac  redigeret  in  corpus,  is  profecto  non  dissentirel 
a  nobis." — Lactant,lib.  7. 

5* 


42  ADMISSIONS    OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

the  truth  that  was  scattered  and  diffused,  says  Lactan- 
tius,  among  sects  and  individuals,  into  one,  and  to  have 
reduced  it  into  a  system,  there  would,  indeed,  have  been 
no  difference  between  him  and  us. 

11.*  And  if  Cicero's  works,  says  Arnobius,  had  been 
read  as  they  ought  to  have  been  by  the  heathens,  there 
would  have  been  no  need  of  Christian  writers. 

12.t  "  T/irt/,  in  our  times  is  the  Christian  Religion, 
(says  St.  Augustin,)  which  to  know  and  follow  is  the  most 
sure  and  certain  health,  called  according  to  that  name, 
but  not  according  to  the  thing  itself,  of  which  it  is  the 
name  ;  for  the  thing  itself,  which  is  now  called  the 
Christian  Religion,  really  was  known  to  the  ancients, 
nor  was  wanting  at  any  time  from  the  beginning  of  the 
human  race,  until  the  time  when  Christ  came  in  the  flesh, 
from  whence  the  true  religion,  which  had  previously 
existed,  began  to  be  called  Christian  ;  and  this  in  our  days 
is  the  Christian  religion,  not  as  having  been  wanting  in 
former  times,  but  as  having  in  later  times  received  this 
name." 

13.;}:  "  What  then  .''  and  do  the  philosophers  recommend 
nothing  like  the  precepts  of  the  gospel  ?"  asks  Lactantius. 
Yes,  indeed,  they  do  very  many,  and  often  approach  to 
truth  ;  only  their  precepts  have  no  weight,  as  being  merely 
human  and  devoid  of  that  greater  and  divine  authority  ; 
and  nobody  believes,  because  the  hearer  thinks  himself  as 
much  a  man,  as  he  is  who  prescribes  them. 

14.  Monsieur  Daillee,  in  his  most  excellent  treatise, 
called.  La  Religion  CathoUque  Romaine,  instituee  par  JVuma 
Pompile^  demonstrates,  that  "the  Papists  took  their  idol- 
atrous worship  of  images,  as  well  as  all  other  ceremonies 
from  the  old  heathen  religion,"  and 

15.  Ludovicus   Vivus,   a    learned   Catholic,   confesses, 

*  So  quoted  and  translated  by  Tindal,  in  his  "  Christianity  as  Old  as  the 
Creation,"  p.  397. 

t  Ea  est  nostris  temporibus  Christiana  religio,  quam  cognoscere  ac  sequi 
securissima  et  certissiina  salus  est  :  secundum  hoc  noiiien  dictum  est  non 
Becuudum  ipsam  rem  cujus  hoc  nomen  est :  nam  res  ipsa  qu;u  nunc  Christiana 
religio  nuncupatur  erat  et  apud  antiquos,*nec  defuit  ab  initio  generis  humani, 
quousque  ipse  Christus  veniret  in  came,  unde  vera  religio  quaj  jam  erat  ca;pit 
appeliari  Christiana.  IIccc  est  nostris  teniboribus  Christiana  religio,  non  quia 
prioribus  temporibus  non  fuit,  sed  quia  posterioribus  hoc  nomen  accepit. — Opera 
Auguatini,  vol.  I,  p.  12.     Basil  edit.   1529. 

%  Quid  ergo,  nihil  ne  illi  (philosoplii)  simile  prtecipiunt  ?  !mmo  permulta  et  ad 
veritatem  frequenter  accedunt.  Sed  nihil  pondoris  habent  ila  pra-cepla,  quia  sant 
hnmana,  et  auctoritate  majori  id  est  divina,  illii  cjirent.  Neiiio  igitur  credit  ;  quia 
tarn  se  homiiiem  putat  esse  qui  audit,  quam  est  ille  qui  pra;cipil.— Lactant  lib.  3,  at 
Citat  Clarke,  p.  301  : 


ADMISSIONS     OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS.  43 

that  "  there  could  be  found  no  other  difference  between 
Pasfanish  and  Popish  worship  before  imag-es,  but  only 
this,  that  names  and  titles  are  changed. " — Quoted  in 
Blount's  Pliilostmtus,  p.  113,  114. 

16.*  Epiphanius  freely  admits,  of  all  the  heretical  forms 
of  Christianity,  that  is,  of  all  that  differed  from  his  own, 
that  they  were  derived  from  the  heathen  mythology. 

17.  The  Manichees,  the  most  distinguished  of  all  who 
dissented  from  the  established  church,  and  unquestionably 
the  most  intelligent  and  learned  of  all  who  ever  professed 
and  called  themselves  Christians,  boasted  of  being  in 
possession  of  a  work  called  the  Theosophy,  or  the 
Wisdom  of  God  ;  (and  such  a  work  we  actually  find  quoted 
by  St.  Paul,  1  Corinth.  2,)  in  which  the  purport  was  to 
show,f  that  Judaism,  Paganism,  and  Manicheeism,  i.  e. 
as  they  understood  it,  Ckristianity^  were  one  and  the  same 
religion,  and 

18.  Even  our  own  orthodox  Bishop  Burnet,  in  his 
treatise  De  Statu  Mortuorum,  purposely  written  in  Latin, 
that  it  might  serve  for  the  instruction  of  the  clergy  only, 
and  not  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  laity,  because,  as 
he  says,  "  too  much  light  is  hurtful  for  weak  eyes  ;"  not 
only  justifies,  but  recommends  the  practice  of  the  most 
consummate  hypocrisy,  and  that  too,  on  the  most  awful  of 
all  subjects  ;  and  would  have  his  clergy  seriously  preach 
and  maintain  the  reality  and  eternity  of  hell  torments, 
even  though  they  should  believe  nothing  of  the  sort  them- 
selves.| 

WhaJ  is  this,  but  an  edition,  by  a  Christian  bishop,  of 
the  very  sentiment  which  Cicero  reproves  in  Pagan  phi- 
losophers : — "  Quid  ?  ii  qui  dixerunt  totam  de  Diis  im- 
mortalibus  opinionem /ctoni  esse  ab  hominibus  sapientibus, 
.ReipublicsB  causa,  ut  quos  Ratio  non  posset,  eos  ad  officium 
Rehgio  duceret,  nonne  omnem  religionem  funditus  sus- 
tulerunt."— De  Nat.  Deor.  lib.  1,  ch.  42,  p.  405.— Can 
there  be  any  doubt,  that  Bishop  Burnet,  with  all  his  cant 
about  converting  the  Earl  of  Rochester,  was  himself  an 
Atheist  ? 

19.  Dr.    Mosheim,    among    his    many   and  invaluable 

*  Ex  ycQ  i/->-i!viy.o>v  fivSuiv  Ttaaai  ai  aiocaitg  (rivatacrat  tavraic  t>;v  nHuyr/i 
xart^aXov.—Uier.  26,  n.  16,  p.  98,  D. 

t  Ev  j;  TisioaTUi  Seixvvvai  tov  inSaiauov  y.cci  tov  f'/.?.rjitaiiov  xai  ror  ftart;(aiaf(ot 
tv  tivat  xai  TO  avTodoyva. — Fabricius,  torn.  1,  p.  354. 

t  Si  me  tamen  audire  velis,  mallem  te  paenas  has  dicere  indefinitas  quam  infinitas. 
— Sed  veniet  dies,  cum  non  minus  absurda,  habebitur  et  odiosa  haec  opinio  qnam 
transubstantiatio  hodie. — De  Statu  Mort.  p.  304. 


44  ADMISSIONS    OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

writing's,  published  a  dissertation,  showing-  the  reasons 
and  .causes  of  supposititious  writings  in  the  first  and 
second  century.  And  all  own,  says  Lardner,  that  Chris- 
tians of  all  sorts  were  guilty  of  this  fraud  ;  indeed,  we  may 
say,  it  was  one  great  fault  of  the  times.* 

20. f  "  And  in  the  last  place,  (says  the  great  Casaubon,) 
it  mightily  affects  me,  to  see  how  many  there  were  in  the 
earliest  times  of  the  church ,  who  considered  it  as  a  capital 
exploit,  to  lend  to  heavenly  truth  the  help  of  their  own 
inventions,  in  order  that  the  new  doctrine  might  be  more 
readily  allowed  by  the  wise  among  the  Gentiles.  These 
officious  lies,  they  were  wont  to  ?ay,  were  devised  for  a 
good  end.  From  which  source,  beyond  question,  sprung 
nearly  innumerable  books,  which  that  and  the  following 
age  saw  published  by  those  who  were  far  from  being  bad 
men,t  (for  we  are  not  speaking  of  the  books  of  heretics,) 
under  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the 
apostles,  and  other  saints." 

The  reader  has  only  to  satisfy  himself  with  his  own 
solution  of  the  question  emergent  from  such  an  admission. 
If  those  who  palmed  what  they  knew  to  be  a  lie,  upon  the 
world,  under  the  name  and  sanction  of  a  God  of  truth,  are 
to  be  considered  as  still  worthy  of  our  confidence,  and  far 
from  being  bad  men :  who  are  the  bad  men  .''  Illud  me  quo- 
que  vehementer  movet. 

21.  "  There  is  scarce  any  church  in  Christendom  at  this 
day,  (says  one  of  the  church's  most  distinguished  orna- 
ments) which  doth  not  obtrude,  not  only  plain  falsehoods, 
but  such  falsehoods  as  will  appear  to  any  free  spicit,  pure 
contradictions  and  impossibilities  ;  and  that  with  the  same 
gravity,  authority,  and  importunity,  as  they  do  the  holy 
oracles  of  God." — Dr.  Henry  Moore. 

Here  again  emerge  the  anxious  queries. — Why.  should 
not  a  man  have  a  free  spirit .''  and  what  credit  can  be  due 
to  the  holy  oracles  of  God,  standing  on  no  better  evidence 

*  Lardner,  vol.  4,  p.  524. 

t  "  Poatremo  illud  quoque  me  vehementer  movet,  quod  videam  primis 
ecclesim  temporibus,  quam  plurimos  exlitisse,  qui  facinus  palmarium  judi- 
cabant,  ca^lestem  veritatem  figmentis  suis  ire  adjutum,  quo  facilius  nova 
doctriiia  a  gentium  sapienlibus  admitteretur.  OfHciosa  haec  mendacia  vocabant 
bono  fine  exeogitata.  (iuo  ex  fonte  dubio  procul,  sunt  orti  libri  fere  sexcenti, 
quos  ilia  a;tas  et  proxima  vidcrunt,  ab  hominibus  ininime  nialis,  (nam  de 
hsereticoruni  libris  non  loquimur)  sub  nomine  etiam  Domini  Jesu  Christi  et  apo8- 
tolorum  aliorumque  sanctorum  publicalos." — Casaubon,  quoted  in  Lardner, 
vol.  4,  p.  .524. 

X  Mosheim  treats  these  holy  forgers  with  the  same  tenderness,  "  they  were  men, 
(he  says;  whose  intentions  were  not  bad." — Eccl.  Hist.  vol.  1,  p.  109. 


ADMISSIONS  OP  CHRISTIAN  WRITERS.  46 

of  being-  such,  than  the  testimony  of  those,  who  we  know 
have  pahned  the  grossest  falsehoods  on  us,  with  the  same 
gravity,  and  as  of  equal  authority  Avith  those  holy  oracles  ? 
and 

22.  "  This  opinion  has  always  been  in  the  world,  that  to 
settle  a  certain  and  assured  estimation  \ipon  that  which 
is  good  and  true,  it  is  necessary  to  remove  out  of  tlie  way, 
whatsoever  may  be  an  hindrance  to  it.  Neither  ought 
we  to  wonder,  that  even  those  of  the  honest  innocent 
primitive  times  made  use  of  these  deceits,  seeing  for  a 
good  end  they  made  no  scruple  to  forge  whole  books." — 
Daille,  on  the  Use  of  the  Fathers,  b.  1,  c.  3. 

What  good  end  was  that,  which  needed  to  be  prosecuted 
by  the  forgery  of  whole  books  ? 

23.  '■'■Btit  if  our  unrighteousness  commend  the  righteousness 
of  God,  what  shall  ice  say  V — Rom.  iii.  5.  '•'■For  if  the  truth 
of  God  hath  more  abounded  through  my  lie,  unto  his  glory, 
why  yet  am  I  also  judged  as  a  sinner  '?" — Romans,  iii.  7. 

24.  The  apostolic  father,  Hernias,  who  was  the  fellow- 
labourer  of  St.  Paul  in  the  work  of  the  ministry  ;  who  is 
greeted  as  such  in  the  New  Testament  :  and  whose 
writings  are  expressly  quoted*  as  of  divine  inspiration 
by  the  early  fathers,  ingenuously  confesses  that  lying 
was  the  easily-besetting  sin  of  a  Christian.  His  words 
are, 

"  0  Lord,  I  never  spake  a  true  word  in  my  life,  but  I 
have  always  lived  in  dissimulation,  and  affirmed  a  lie  for 
truth  to  all  men,  and  no  man  contradicted  me,  but  all  gave 
credit  to  my  words."  To  which  the  holy  angel,  whom  he 
addresses,  condescendingly  admonishes  him,  that  "as  the 
lie  M^as  UP,  now,  he  had  better  keep  it  up,  and  as  in  time 
it  would  come  to  be  believed,  it  would  answer  as  well  as 
truth." 

25.  Even  Christ  himself  is  represented  in  the  gospels 
as  inculcating  the  necessity,  and  setting  the  example  of 
deceiving  and  imposing  upon  the  common  people,  and 
purposely  speaking  unto  them  in  parables  and  double 
entendres,  '■'■tli.at  seeeing,  they  might  see,  and  not  perceive  ;  and 
hearing,  they  might  hear,  but  not  understand.'''' — Mark,  iv.  12. 

*  The  words  of  the  text  are,  "  Now  thou  hearest,  take  care  from  henceforth, 
that  even  those  things  which  thou  hast  formerly  spoken  falsely,  may  by  ihy 
present  truth,- receive  credit.  For  even  those  things  may  be  credited  ;  if  for 
the  time  to  come,  thou  shall  speak  the  truth,  and  by  so  doijig,  thou  maysl  attain 
unto  life."— Archbishop  Wake's  Genuine  Epistles  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  in 
loco.  See  this  article,  where  IIermas  occurs  in  the  regular  succession  of  apos- 
tolic fathers,  in  thia  Diegesis. 


46  ADMISSIONS    OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

26.  And  divine  inspiration,  so  far  from  involving  any 
guarantee  that  truth  woidd  be  spoken  under  its  immediate 
intluence,  is  in  the  scripture  itself,  laid  down  as  the 
criterion  whereby  we  may  know  that  nothing  in  the  shape 
of  truth  is  to  be  expected  : — "  And  if  the  prophet  he  deceived 
when  he  hath  spoken  a  thing,  /,  the  Lord,  have  deceived  that 
prophet. — Ezek.  xiv.  9. 

21.  When  it  was  intended  that  King  Ahab  should  be 
seduced  to  his  inevitable  destruction,  God  is  represented 
as  having  employed  his  faith  and  piety  as  the  means  of 
his  overthrow  : — "JVb?o,  therefore,  the  Lord  hath  put  a  lying 
spirit  in  the  mouth  of  all  thy  prophets.'''' — 1  Kings,  xxii.  23. 
There  were  four  hundred  of  them,  all  speaking  under  the 
influence  of  divine  inspiration,  all  having  received  the 
spirit  from  on  high,  all  of  them  the  servants  of  God,  and 
engaged  in  obeying  none  other  than  his  godly  motions, 
yet  lying  as  fast  as  if  the  father  of  lies  himself  had  com- 
missioned them.  Such  a  set  of  fellows,  so  employed, 
cannot  at  least  but  make  us  suspect  some  sort  of  sarcasm 
in  our  Te  Deum,  where  we  say,  "  i/ie  goodly  fellowship  of 
the  prophets  praise  thee.''''  The  devil  would  hardly  think 
such  sort  of  praise,  a  compliment.  Happy  would  it  have 
been  for  Ahab,  had  he  been  an  Infidel. 

28.  The  New  Testament,  however,  one  might  hope,  as 
being  a  second  revelation  from  God,  woidd  have  given 
him  an  opportunity  of  "  repenting  of  the  evil  he  had  spoken  ;" 
but  alas  !  orthodoxy  itself  is  constrained  to  tremble  and 
adore,  before  that  dreadful  declaration,  than  which  no 
religion  that  ever  was  in  the  world  besides,  ever  contained 
any  thing  half  so  horrible  : — "  For  this  cause,  God  shall  send 
them  strong  delusion  that  they  should  believe  a  lie,  that  they  all 
might  he  damned.''^ — 2  Thess.  ii.  11,  12.  Such  was  to  be 
the  effect  of  divine  revelation. 

Should  then,  our  further  prosecution  of  the  inquiry 
proposed  by  this  Diegesis,  lead  us  to  the  conviction  that 
the  amount  of  evidence  for  the  pretensions  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  is  as  strong  as  it  may  be,  it  Avill  yet  remain 
for  an  inquiry,  which  we  shall  never  ventiu-e  to  prosecute, 
whether  that  strength  of  evidence  itself,  may  not  be  strong 
delusion.  Strong  enough  must  that  delusion  needs  be, 
by  wliich  Omnipotence  would  intend  to  impose  on  the 
credulity  and  weakness  of  his  creatures.  Is  it  for  those 
who  will  defend  the  apparent  inferences  of  such  a  passage, 
to  point  out  any  thing  in  the  grossest  conceits,  of  the 


ADMISSIONS    OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS.  47 

grossest  forms  of  Pag-anism,  that  mig-ht  not  have  admitted 
of  a  palliative  interpretation  ? 

29.  St.  Paul  himself,  in  an  ambigfuous  text,  either 
openly  glories  in  the  avowal,  or  but  faintly  repels  the 
charg-e  of  practising-  a  continued  system  of  imposture  and 
dissimulation.  "  For  unto  the  Jews^  (says  he)  /  became  as 
a  Jew,  that  I  might  gain  the  Jews.  To  the  %oeak,  became  I  as 
weak,  that  I  might  gain  the  iceak ;  I  am  made  all  things  to  all 
men.'''' — 1  Corinth,  ix.  22. 

30.  And  in  a  passag-e  still  more  pregnant  with  inference 
to  our  great  inquiry,  (2  Galat.  ii.)  he  distinguishes  the 
gospel  which  he  preached  on  ordinary  occasions,  from 
"  that  gospel  ichich  he  preached  privately  to  them  that  were  of 
reputation.'''' 

31.  Dr.  Mosheim  admits,  that  the  Platonists  and  Pytha- 
goreans held  it  as  a  maxim,  that  it  was  not  only  lawful, 
but  praiseworthy  to  deceive,  and  even  to  use  the  expedient 
of  a  lie,  in  order  to  advance  the  cause  of  truth  and  piety. 
The  Jews  who  lived  in  Egypt,  had  learned  and  received 
this  maxim  from  them,  before  the  coming  of  Christ,  as 
appears  incontestibly  from  a  multitude  of  ancient  records, 
and  the  Christians  were  infected  from  both  these  sources, 
with  the  same  pernicious  error. — Mosheim,  vol.  1.  p.  197. 

32.  In  the  fourth  century,  the  same  great  author  in- 
structs us  "that  it  was  an  almost  universally  adopted 
maxim,  that  it  was  an  act  of  virtue  to  deceive  and  lie, 
when  by  such  means  the  interests  of  the  church  might  be 
promoted."— Vol.  1.  p.  198. 

S3.  And  as  it  regards  the  fifth  century,  he  continues, 
the  simplicity  and  ignorance  of  the  generality  in  those 
times,  furnished  the  most  favourable  occasion  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  fraud  ;  and  the  impudence  of  impostors  in  con- 
triving false  miracles,  was  artfully  proportioned  to  the 
credulity  of  the  vulgar  :  while  the  sagacious  and  the  wise, 
who  perceived  these  cheats,  were  overawed  into  silence 
by  the  dangers  that  threatened  their  lives  and  fortunes, 
if  they  should  expose  the  artifice." — Mosheim,  Eccl.  Hist. 
vol.  2.  p.  11. 

34.  Nor  must  we,  in  any  part  of  our  subsequent  investi- 
gation, quit  our  hold  on  the  important  admission  of  the 
fact  supplied  to  us  by  the  research  of  that  most  eminent 
of  critics,  the  great  Semler — that  the  sacred  books  of  the 
Christian  Scriptures  (from  which  circumstance,  it  may  be, 
they  derive  their  name  of  sacred)  were,  during  the  early 


48  ADMISSIONS    OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

ag-es  of  Christianity,  really  kept  sacred.  "  The  Christian 
Doctors  (says  he)  never  orouj^ht  their  sacred  books  before 
the  common  people  ;  althoug-h  {people  in  areneral  have  been 
wont  to  think  otherwise  ;  during-  the  first  agres,  they  were 
in  the  hands  of  the  clerg-y'only."*  I  solemnly  invoke  the 
rumination  of  the  reader  to  the  inferences  with  which  this 
admission  teems.  I  write,  but  cannot  think  for  him.  The 
light  is  in  his  hand  :  what  it  shall  show  him,  must  depend 
on  his  willingness  to  see. 

35.  How  the  common  people  were  christianized,  we 
gather  from  a  remarkable  passage  which  Mosheim  has 
preserved  for  us,  in  the  life  of  Gregory,  surnamed  Thau- 
maturgus,  that  is,  the  wonder-worker  :  the  passage  is  as 
follows  rf 

When  Gregory  perceived  that  the  simple  and  unskilled 
multitude  persisted  in  their  worship  of  images,  on  account 
of  the  pleasures  and  sensual  gratifications  which  they 
enjoyed  at  the  Pagan  festivals,  he  granted  them  a  permis- 
sion to  indulge  themselves  in  the  like  pleasures,  in  cele- 
brating the  memory  of  the  holy  martyrs,  hoping,  that  in 
process  of  time,  they  would  retvum,  of  their  own  accord, 
to  a  more  virtuous  and  regular  course  of  life."  The  his- 
torian remarks,  that  there  is  no  sort  of  doubt,  that  by  this 
permission,  Gregory  allowed  the  Christians  to  dance,  sport, 
and  feast  at  the  tombs  of  the  martyrs,  upon  their  respec- 
tive festivals,  and  to  do  every  thing  which  the  Pagans 
were  accustomed  to  do  in  their  temples,  during  the  feasts 
celebrated  in  honour  of  their  gods." — Mosheim,  vol.  1. 
Cent.  2.  p.  202. 

36.  This  accommodating  and  truly  Christian  spirit  was 
carried  to  such  an  extent,  that  the  images  of  the  Pagan 
deities  were  in  some  instances  allowed  to  remain,  and 
continued  to  receive  divine  honours,  in  Christian  churches. 
The  images  of  the  sybills,  of  which  Gallreus  has  given  us 
prints,  were  retained  in  the  Christian  church  of  Sienna. "| 
—Bell's  Panth.  2.  237. 

*  Christian!  doctores  non  in  vulgus  prodebant  libros  sacros,  licet  soleant  plerique 
aliter  opinari,  erant  tantum  in  manibns  clericorum,  priora  per  ssecula. — Dissertat. 
in  Tertul.  1.  §  10.  note  57. 

t  Cum  animadveitisset  Gregorius  quod  ob  corpoTeas  delectationes  et  vo- 
luptates,  .simplex  et  irnperitum  vulgus  in  simulacrorum  cultus  errore  perma- 
neret — permisit  ei»,  nt  in  memoriam  et  recordationem  sanctoium  niurtjnim 
sese  oblectarent,  et  in  la-titiani  effundercntur,  quod  successu  temporis  ajiquando 
futurum  esset,  ut  sua  sponte,  ad  honeatioreiii  et  accuratiorem  vita;  rationem, 
transirent." 

X  The  head  of  the  Jupiter  Olympius  of  Phidias,  carved  in  the  mahogany  tran- 
sept, officiates  at  this  day,  as  locum  tenens  for  God  Almighty,  in  the  chapel  of 
King's  College,  Cambridge. 


ADMISSIONS  OF  CHRISTIAN  WRITERS.  49 

Among  the  sacred  writing's  which  the  church  has  seen 
fit  to  deem  apochryphal,  there  was  a  book  attributed  to 
Christ  himself,  in  which  he  declares  that  he  was  in  no  way 
against  the  heathen  gods. — Jones  on  the  Canon,  vol.  I. 
p.  11.  Origen  vindicates,  without  denying  the  charge 
of  Celsus,  "•  that  the  Christian  Religion  contained  nothing 
but  what  Christians  held  in  common  with  heathens: 
nothing  that  was  new,  or  truly  great." — Bellamy'' s  Transla- 
tion, chap.  4. 

37.  Even  under  the  primitive  discipline,  and  before  the 
conversion  of  Rome,  while  the  church  was  cautious  of 
admitting  into  her  worship  any  thing  that  had  a  relation 
to  the  old  idolatry:  yet  even  in  this  period,  Gregory 
Thaumaturgus,  is  commended  by  his  namesake  of  Nyssa, 
for  changing  the  Pagan  festivals  into  Christian  holidays, 
the  better  to  draw  the  heathens  to  the  religion  of  Christ.* 

38.  Thus  Paulinus,  a  convert  from  Paganism,  of  sena- 
torian  rank,  celebrated  for  his  parts  and  learning,  and  who 
became  Bishop  of  JVola,  apologizes  for  setting  up  certain 
paintings  in  his  episcopal  church,  dedicated  to  Felix  the 
Martyr,  "  that  it  was  done  with  a  design  to  draw  the  rude 
multitude,  habituated  to  the  profane  rites  of  Paganism,  to 
a  knowledge  and  good  opinion  of  the  Christian  doctrine, 
by  learning  from  these  pictures,  what  they  were  not  capa- 
ble of  learning  from  books;  i.  e.  the  Lives  and  Acts  of 
Christian  Saints." — See  Works  of  Paulinus,  B.  9. 

39.  Pope  Gregory,  called  the  Great,  about  two  centu- 
ries later,  makes  the  same  apology  for  images  or  pictures, 
in  churches;  declaring  them  to  have  been  introduced  for 
the  sake  of  the  Pagans;  that  those  who  did  not  know,  and 
could  not  read  the  Scriptures,  might  learn  from  those 
images  and  pictures  what  they  ought  to  worship. f 

40.  Paulinus  declares  the  object  of  these  images  and 
pictures  to  have  been,  "  to  draw  the  heathens  the  more 
easily  to  the  faith  of  Christ,  since  by  flocking  in  crowds  to 
gaze  at  the  finery  of  these  paintings,  and  by  explaining  to 
each  other  the  stories  there  represented,  they  would  gra- 
dually acquire  a  reverence  for  that  religion,  which  inspired 
so  much  virtue  and  piety  into  its  professors." 

*  Nyssen,  in  Vita  Greg.  Thaumat.  cit.  Middleton,  Letter  from  Rome,  236. 
The  good  nature  of  Gregory  is  the  more  commendable,  inasmuch  as  it  was  a 
grateful  return  of  the  like  degree  of  indulgence  as  had  been  shown  to  himself. 
He  was  taken  in  to  the  Christian  ministry,  and  consecrated  a  bishop  of  Christ, 
and  wrought  miracles,  even  while  he  continued  a  Pagan,  and  was  entirely  ignorant 
of  the  Christian  doctrine. 

t  Epist.  1.  9,  c.  9. 

6 


^  ADMISSIONS    OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

41.  But  these  compliances,  as  Bishop  Stilling/ieet  ob- 
serves, were  attended  with  very  bad  consequences  ;  since 
Christianity  became  at  last^  by  that  means,  to  be  nothing  else  but 
reformed  Paganism,  as  to  its  divine  worship.* 

42.  The  learned  Christian  advocate,  M.  Turretin,  in 
describinfj  the  state  of  Christianity  in  the  fourth  century, 
has  a  well  turned  rhetoricisni,  the  point  of  which  is,  "that 
it  was  not  so  much  the  empire  that  was  brought  over  to 
The  faith,  as  the  faith  that  was  brought  over  to  the  em- 
pire: not  the  Pagans  who  were  converted  to  Christianity, 
but  Christianity  that  was  converted  to  Paganism."! 

43.  "  From  this  era,  then,  according  to  the  accounts  of 
all  writers,  though  Christianity  became  the  public  and  es- 
tablished religion  of  the  government,  yet  it  was  forced  to 
sustain  a  perpetual  struggle  for  many  ages,  against  the 
obstinate  efforts  of  Paganism,  which  was  openly  espoused 
by  some  of  the  emperors;  publicly  tolerated  and  privately 
favoured  by  others;  and  connived  at  in  some  degree  by 
all." — Middletonh  Letters  from  Rome. 

44.  Within  thirty  years  after  Constantine,  the  emperor 
Julian  entirely  restored  Paganism,  and  abrogated  all  the 
laws  which  had  been  made  against  it.  Though  it  is 
utterly  untrue  that  he  was  ever  guilty  of  any  act  of  perse- 
cution or  intolerance  towards  Christians.]:  The  three 
emperors,  who  next  in  order  succeeded  Julian,  i.  e.  Jovian, 
Valentinian,  Valens;  though  they  were  Christians  by  pro- 
fession, were  yet  wholly  inditferent  and  neutral  between 
the  two  religions;  granting  an  equal  indulgence  and  tole- 
ration to  them  both.  So  that  they  may  be  as  fairly 
claimed  to  be  Pagan  as  Christian  emperors.  Nor  had 
even  Constantine  himself,  the  first  for  whom  the  designa- 
tion of  a  Christian  emperor  has  been  challenged,- accepted 
the  rite  of  Christian  baptism,  before  he  was  dying,  or  ever 
in  his  life  ceased  to  be,  and  to  officiate,  as  a  priest  of  the 
gods. 

Gratian,  the  seventh  emperor  from  him,  and  fourth 
after  Julian,  though  a  sincere  believer,  never  thought  fit  to 
annul  what  Julian  had  restored.    He  was  the  first  however 

*  See  Bishnp  Stilli7ig fleet's  Defence  of  the  charge  of  Idolatry  against  the 
Romanists,  vol.  5  of  his  Woriis,  p.  159,  where  the  reader  will  find  the  charge 
demonstrably  proved  against  thechurcli  of  Koiue. 

+  "  Non  iiiiperio  ad  fidem  adducto,  sed  et  imperii  pompa  ecclesiam  inficionte. 
Non  ethnicis  ad  Christum  conversis,  sed  et  Christi  religione  ad  Ethaicse  formam 
depravata." — Orat.  Academ.  De  Variis  Christ.  Rel.  fatis. 

t  See  vindication  of  his  character,  in  the  Lion.  vol.  l,No.  18.  12th  Letter 
from  Oakham. 


ADMISSIONS     OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS.  51 

of  the  emperors  who  refused  the  title  and  habit  of  the 
Pontifex  Maximus,  as  incompatible  with  the  Christian' 
character.  So  that  till  then,  up  to  the  year  384,  there 
was  no  actual  disunion  between  Christ  and  Belial;  no 
evidence  of  miracles  or  strength  of  reason  had  been 
offered  to  attest  the  superiority  of  the  Christian  religion, 
to  demonstrate  that  there  was  aiiy  material  distinction 
between  that  and  Paganism,  or  to  determine  the  mind  of 
any  one  of  the  Roman  emperors,  that  there  was  an  incon- 
sistency in  being  a  Christian  and  a  Pagan  at  the  same 
time. 

45.  The  affront  put  by  Gratian  upon  the  Pagan  priest- 
hood, in  refusing  to  wear  their  pontifical  robe,  was  so 
highly  resented,  that  one  of  them  is  recorded  to  have  said, 
since  the  emperor  refuses  to  be  our  Pontifex  Maximus,  we  will 
very  shortly  take  care  that  our  Pontifex  shall  be  Maximus. 

46.  In  the  subsequent  reign  of  Theodosius,  whose  laws 
were  generally  severe  upon  the  Pagans,  Symmachus,  the 
governor  of  Rome,  presented  a  memorial  in  the  strongest 
terms,  and  in  the  name  of  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome,  for 
leave  to  replace  the  altar  of  victory  in  the  senate  house, 
whence  it  had  been  removed  by  Gratian.  This  memorial 
was  answered  by  St.  Ambrose,  who  in  a  letter  upon  it  to 
the  emperor,  observes,  that,  "when  the  petitioners  had  so 
many  temples  and  altars  of  their  own,  in  all  the  streets  of 
Rome,  where  they  might  freely  offer  their  sacrifices,  it 
seemed  to  be  a  mere  insult  on  Christianity,  to  demand  still 
one  altar  more;  and  especially  in  the  senate  house,  where 
the  greater  part  v/ere  then  Christians."  This  petition  was 
rejected  by  Valentinian,  against  the  advice  of  all  his 
council,  but  was  granted  presently  after  by  the  Christian 
emperor,  Eugenius,  who  murthered  and  succeeded  him. 

Thus  entering  on  the  fifth  century,  and  further  surely 
we  need  not  descend:  we  have  the  surest  and  most  une- 
quivocal demonstration,  that  Christianity,  as  a  religion 
distinct  from  the  ancient  Paganism,  up  to  that  time,  had 
gained  no  extensive  footing  in  the  world.  After  that  pe- 
riod, all  that  there  was  of  religion  in  the  world,  merges  in 
the  palpable  obscure  of  the  dark  ages.  The  pretence  to 
an  argument  for  the  Christian  religion,  from  any  thing 
either  miraculous  or  extraordinary  in  its  propagation,  is 
therefore,  a  sheer  defiance  of  all  evidence  and  reason 
whatever. 

47.  "  PantsBnus,  the  head  of  the  Alexandrian  school, 
was  probably  the  first  who  enriched  the  church  with  a 


52  ADMISSIONS     OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

version  of  the  sacred  writings,  which  has  been  lost 
among:  the  ruins  of  time. — Mosh.  vol.  I.  186. — Compare 
with  JVo.  34  in  this  Chapter. 

48.  "  They  all,  (i  call  the  fathers  of  the  second  cen- 
tury) attributed  a  double  sense  to  the  words  of  Scripture, 
the  one  obvious  and  literal,  the  other  hidden  and  myste- 
rious, which  lay  concealed,  as  it  were,  under  the, veil  of 
the  outward  letter.  The  former  they  treated  with  the 
utmost  neglect,"  &c. — Ibid.  186. 

49.  "  God  also  hath  made  us  able  ministers  of  the  New 
Testament,  not  of  the  letter  but  of  the  spirit:  for  the  let- 
ter killeth,  but  the  spirit  g-iveth  life." — 2  Corinth,  iii.  6. 

50.  "  It  is  here  to  be  attentively  observed  (says  Mo- 
sheim,  speaking  of  the  church  in  the  second  century)  that 
the  form  used  in  the  exclusion  of  heinous  offenders  from 
the  society  of  Christians,  was,  at  first,  extremely  simple; 
but  was,  however,  imperceptibly  altered,  enlarged  by  an 
addition  of  a  vast  multitude  of  riies,  and  new-modelled  ac- 
cording to  the  discipline' used  in  the  ancient  mysteries." 
—Mosh.  vol.  I.  p.  199. 

51.  "  The  profound  respect  that  was  paid  to  the  Greek 
and  Roman  mysteries.,  and  the  extraordinary  sanctity  that 
was  attributed  to  them,  induced  the  Christians,  (of  the 
second  century)  to  give  their  religion  a  mystic  air.,  in  order 
to  put  it  upon  an  equal  footing,  in  point  of  dignity,  with 
that  of  the  Pagans.  For  this  purpose,  they  gave  the 
name  of  mysteries  to  the  institutions  of  the  gospel,  and 
decorated,  particularly  the  holy  sacrament,  with  that 
solemn  title.  They  used,  in  that  sacred  institution,  as  also 
in  that  of  baptism,  several  of  the  terms  employed  in  the 
heathen  mysteries.,  and  proceeded  so  far  at  length,  as  even 
to  adopt  some  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  which  those 
renowned  mysteries  consisted." — Ibid.  204. 

52.  "  It  may  be  further  observed,  that  the  custom  of 
teaching  their  religious  doctrines,  by  images,  actions, 
signs,  and  other  sensible  representations,  which  prevailed 
among  the  Egyptians,  and  indeed  in  almost  all  the  eastern 
nations,  was  another  cause  of  the  increase  of  external  rites 
in  the  church." — Ibid.  204. 

53.  "  Among  the  human  means  that  contributed  to  mul- 
tiply the  number  of  Christians,  and  extend  the  limits  of 
the  church  in  the  third  century,  we  shall  find  a  great 
variety  of  causes  uniting  their  influence,  and  contributing' 
jointly  to  this  happy  i)urpose.  Among  tliese  must  be 
reckoned  the  zeal  and  labours  of  Origen,  and  the  difterent 


ADMISSIONS     OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS.  53 

works  which  were  publish pd  by  learned  and  pious  men  in 
defence  of  the  gfospel.  If  among  the  causes  of  the  pro- 
pagation of  Christianity,  there  is  any  place  due  to  pious 
FRAUDS,  it  is  certain  that  they  merit  a  very  small  part  of 
the  honour  of  having  contributed  to  this  glorious  purpose, 
since  they  were  practised  by  few,  and  that  very  rarely."* 
— JMosheim^  vol.  I,  p.  246. 

54.  "  Origen,  invited  from  Alexandria  by  an  Arabian 
prince,  converted  by  his  assiduous  labours  a  certain  tribe 
of  wandering  Arabs  to  the  Christian  faith.  The  Goths, 
a  fierce  and  warlike  people,  received  the  knowledge  of  the 
gospel  by  the  means  of  certain  Christian  doctors,  sent 
thither  from  Asia.  The  holy  lives  of  these  venerable 
teachers,  and  the  miraculous  powers  with  which  they 
were  endowed,  attracted  the  esteem,  even  of  a  people 
educated  to  nothing  but  plunder  and  devastation,  and 
absolutely  uncivilized  by  letters  or  science:  and  their 
authority  and  influence  became  so  great,  and  produced  in 
process  of  time  such  remarkable  effects,  that  a  great  part 
of  this  barbarous  people  professed  themselves  the  disciples 
of  Christ,  and  put  off,  in  a  manner.,  that  ferocity  which  had 
been  so  natural  to  them." — Vol.  I,  247. 

55.  "  Among  .the  superhuman  means,"  which,  after  all 
that  he  has  admitted,  this  writer  thinks  can  alone  suffi- 
ciently account  for  the  successful  propagation  of  the 
gospel,  "  we  not  only  reckon  the  intrinsic  force  of  celestial 
truth,  and  the  piety  and  fortitude  of  those  who  declared 
it  to  the  world,  but  also  that  especial  and  interposing  pro- 
vidence., which  by  dreams  and  visions.,  presented  to  the  minds 
of  many,  who  were  either  inattentive  to  the  Christian 
doctrine,  or  its  professed  enemies,  touched  their  hearts 
with  a  conviction  of  the  truth,  and  a  sense  of  its  import- 
ance; and  engaged  them  without  delay  to  profess  them- 
selves the  disciples  of  Christ." 

56.  "  To  this  may  also  be  added,  the  healing  of  diseases, 
and  other  miracles,  which  many  Christians  were  yet 
enabled  to  perform,  by  invoking  the  name  of  the  Divine 
Saviour. — Mosheim,  vol.  I,  p.  245. 

On  these  last  four  most  important  admissions;  the 
reader  will  observe,  that  it  may  be  enough  to  remark, 
that  the  principle  on  which   this  work  is  conducted,  so 

*  How  must  every  ingenuous  and  virtuous  sensibility  in  man's  nature,  have 
smarted  under  the  distress  of  being  obliged  to  use  language  like  this.  I  know  the 
man  who  hath  preferred  the  fate  of  felons,  and  would  rather  still,  pass  only  from 
the  prison  to  the  tomb,  than  he  would  use  the  like. 

6* 


54  ADMISSIONS     OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

well  expressed  in  its  motto,  that  philosophy  which  is 
agreeable  to  nature,  approve  and  cherish;  but  that  lehich 
pretends  to  commerce  with  the  deity,  avoid!  pledg-es  us  to  view 
all  references  to  supernatural  agency,  as  being  no  proof 
of  such  agency,  but  as  demonstration  absolute  of  the 
idiotish  stupidity,  or  arrant  knavery  of  the  party,  rest- 
ing any  cause  whatever  on  such  references.  It  is  not 
in  the  former  of  these  predicaments,  that  such  an  historian 
as  Mosheim,  can  be  impeached;  nor  could  either  the 
emohmients  or  dignities  of  the  theological  chair  at  Helm- 
stadt,  or  the  chancellorship  of  the  University  of  Gottingen, 
allay  the  smartings  of  sentiment,  and  the  anguish  of  con- 
scious meanness,  in  holding  them  at  so  dear  a  price,  as 
the  necessity  of  making  such  statements,  of  thus  selling 
his  name  to  the  secret  scorn  of  all  whose  praise  was  worth 
ambition,  thus  outraging  his  own  convictions,  thus  con- 
flicting with  his  own  statements;  thus  bowing  down  his 
stupendous  strength  of  talent,  to  harmonize  with  the  fig- 
ments of  drivelling  idiotcy,  making  learning  do  homage  to 
ignorance,  and  the  clarion  that  should  have  roused  the 
sleeping  world,  pipe  down  to  concert  with  the  rattle-trap 
and  Jew's-harp  of  the  nursery. 

Of  the  pious  frauds,  which  this  historian  admits  to 
share  only  a  small  part  of  the  honour  of  contributing  to 
the  propagation  of  the  gospel,  because  they  were  "  prac- 
tised by  so  few;"  he  had  not  the  alleviation  to  his  feelings, 
of  being  able  to  be  ignorant  that  he  had  falsified  that 
statement  in  innumerable  passages  of  this  and  his  other 
writings;  and  that  his  whole  history  of  the  church,  from 
first  to  last,  contains  not  so  much  as  a  single  instance,  of 
one  of  the  fathers  of  the  church,  or  first  preachers  of  the 
gospel,  who  did  not  practice  those  pious  frauds. 

57.  "  The  authors  who  have  treated  of  the  innocence 
and  sanctity  of  the  primitive  Christians,  have  fallen  into 
the  error  of  supposing  them  to  have  been  unspotted 
models  of  piety  and  virtue,  and  a  gross  error  indeed  it 
is,  as  the  strongest  testimonies  too  evidently  prove." — 
Ibid.  p.  120. 

58.*  "  Such  was  the  license  of  inventing,  so  headlong 
the  readiness  of  believing,  in  the  first  ages,  that  the 
credibility  of  transactions  derived  from  thence,  must  have 
been   hugely   doubtful:  nor  has  the  world  only,  but  the 

*  "  Tanta  fuit  primis  sscculis  fingendi  licentia,  tarn  prona  in  crcdendo  facilitas,  ut 
reram  gestaruni  fides  exinde  giaviter  laboravcrat.  Neque  enim  orbis  terraruin  tan- 
tuin,  sed  et  Dei  ecclesia  de  temporibus  suis  mjsticis merito  qujcratur." — Fell,  Bish- 
op of  Oxford,  quoted  by  Lardner  and  Tindal. 


ADMISSIONS     OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS.  55 

church  of  God  also,  has  reasonahly  to  complain  of  its 
mystical  times." — Bishop  Fell,  so  rendered  in  the  Author's 
Syntagma,  p.  34. 

59.  "  The  extravagant  notions  which  obtained  among 
the  Christians  of  the  primitive  ages,  (says  Dupin)  sprang 
from  the  opinions  of  the  Pagan  philosophers,  and  from 
the  mysteries,  which  crack-brained  men  put  on  the  history 
of  the  Old  and  New-Testament,  according  to  their  imagi- 
nations. The  more  extraordinary  these  opinions  were, 
the  more  did  they  relish,  and  the  better  did  they  like 
them;  and  those  who  invented  them,  published  them 
gravely,  as  great  mysteries  to  the  simple,  who  were  all 
disposed  to  receive  them." — Dupin's  Short  History  of  the 
Church,  vol.  2.  c..4,  as  quoted  by  Tindal,  p.  224. 

60.  "  They  have  but  little  knowledge  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  and  of  the  primitive  Christians,  who  obstinately 
refuse  to  believe  that  such  sort  of  notions  could  not  pro- 
ceed from  thence;  for  on  the  contrary,  it  was  their  very 
character  to  turn  the  whole  scripture  into  allegory." — Arch- 
bishop Wake''s  Life  of  the  apostle  Barnabas,  p.  73. 

Of  the  MIRACULOUS  POWERS  with  which  Mosheim* 
would  persuade  us  that  the  Christians  of  the  third  century 
were  still  endowed;  we  have  but  to  confront  him  with  his 
own  conflicting  statement,  on  the  11th  page  of  his  second 
volume:  concluding  with  his  own  reflection  on  that  ad- 
mission:— "  Thus  does  it  generally  happen  in  human  life, 
that  when  danger  attends  the  discovery  and  the  profession 
of  the  truth,  the  prudent  are  silent,  the  multitude  believe, 
and  impostors  triumph." 

Of  the  DREAMS  and  VISIONS,  of  which  he  speaks;  it  is 
enough  to  answer  him  with  the  intuitive  demonstration, 
that  such  sort  of  evidence  for  Christianity,  might  be  as 
easily  pretended  for  one  religion  as  another;  it  is  such 
as  none  but  a  desperate  cause  would  appeal  to,  such 
as  no  rational  man  would  respect,  and  no  honest  man 
maintain;  not  only  of  no  nature  to  afford  proof  to  the 
claims  of  a  divine  revelation,  but  itself  unproved;  and 
not  alone  unproved;  but  of  its  own  nature,  both  morally 
and  physically,  incapable  of  receiving  any  sort  of  proof. 
The  heart  smarts  for  the  degradation  of  outraged  reason, 
for  the  humiliation  of  torn  and  lacerated  humanity;  that 
a  Mosheim  should  talk  of  dreams  and  visions — that  it 
should  come  to  this!  0  Christianity,  how  great  are  thy 
triumphs  ! 

*  Vol.  I,  p.  247. 


66  ADMISSIONS     OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 

Of  the  HEALING  OP  DISEASES,  by  the  invoking  of  a 
name.  It  is  impossible  not  to  see,  that  this  author  did 
not  beUeve  his  own  argument  :  because  it  is  impossible 
not  to  know  that  no  man  in  his  senses  could  believe  it, 
and  impossible  not  to  suspect,  that  so  weak  and  foolish 
an  argument,  was  by  this  author,  purposely  exhibited  as 
one  of  the  main  pillars  of  the  Christian  evidence,  in  order 
to  betray  to  future  times,  how  weak  that  evidence  w^as, 
and  to  encourage  those  who  should  come  to  live  in  some 
happier  day  when  the  choused  world  might  better  endure 
the  being  undeceived  ; — to  blow  it  down  with  their  breath. 
Beausobre,  Tillotson,  South,  Watson,  Paley,  and  some 
high  in  the  church,  yet  living,  have  given  more  than  preg- 
nant inuendoes  of  their  acting  on  this  policy. 

Nothing  is  more  obvious,  than  that  persons  diseased  in 
body,  must  labour  under  a  corresponding  weakness  of 
mind.  There  is  no  delusion  of  such  obvious  practi- 
cability on  a  weak  mind  in  a  diseased  body  ;  as  that 
which  should  hold  out  hopes  of  cure,  beyond  the  promise 
of  nature.  A  miracle  of  healing,  is  therefore  of  all  miracles, 
in  its  own  nature  most  suspicious,  and  least  capable  of 
evidence. 

It  was  the  pretence  to  these  gifts  of  healings  that  gave 
name  to  the  Thcrapeutce,  or  Healers  ;  and  consequently  sup- 
plies us  with  an  infallible  clue  to  lead  to  the  birth-place  and 
cradle  of  Christianity.  The  cure  being  performed  by 
invocation  of  a  name,  still  lights  us  on  to  the  germ  and 
nucleus  of  the  whole  system.  Neither  slight  nor  few  are 
the  indications  of  this  magical  or  supposed  charming 
operation  of  the  Brutum  fulmen ;  the  mere  name  only  of  the 
words,  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  New  Testament  itself ;  and  con- 
sequently neither  weak  nor  inconsecutive  are  our  reasons, 
for  maintaining  that  it  was  in  the  name,  and  the  name  only, 
that  the  first  preachers  of  Christianity  believed  ;  that  it 
was  not  supposed  by  them  to  be  the  designation  of  any 
person  who  had  really  existed,  but  was  a  vox  et  prceterea 
nihil, — a  charm  more  powerful  than  the  Abraxas,  more 
sacred  than  Mracadahra ;  in  short,  those  were  but  the 
spells  that  bound  the  services  of  inferior  demons —  this, 
conjured  the  assistance  of  omnipotence,  and  was  indeed, 
the  God's  spell.  "  There  is  none  other  name  under  heaven, 
(says  the  Peter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles)  given  among 
men,  lohereby  ice  must  be  saved.'''' — Chap.  iv.  12. 

61.  Origen,  ever  the  main  strength  and  sheet-anchor 
of  the  advocates  of  Christianity,  expressly  maintains,  that 


ADMISSIONS    OF    CHRISTIAN    WRITERS.  57 

"  the  miraculous  powers  which  the  Christians  possessed, 
were  not  in  the  least  owing  to  enchantments,  (which  he 
makes  Celsus  seem  to  have  objected,)  but  to  their  pro- 
nouncing the  name  I.  E.  S.  U.  S,*  and  making  mention 
of  some  remarkable  occurrences  of  his  life.  Nay,  the  name 
of  I.  E.  S.  U.  S,  has  had  such  power  over  demons,  that 
it  has  sometimes  proved  effectual,  though  pronounced  by- 
very  wicked  persons." — Answer  to  Celsiis,  chap.  6. 

62.  "And.  the  name  of  I.  E.  S.  U.  S,  at  this  very  day, 
composes  the  ruffled  minds  of  men,  dispossesses  demons, 
cures  diseases  ;  and  works  a  meek,  gentle,  and  amiable 
temper  in  all  those  persons,  who  make  profession  of 
Christianity,  from  a  higher  end  than  their  worldly  inte- 
rests."— Ibid.  57.  So  says  Origen.  No  Christian  will  for 
a  moment  think  that  there  is  any  salving  of  the  matter  in 
such  a  statement.  Friar's  balsam  was  found  in  every  case 
without  fail  ;  to  heal  the  wound,  even  after  a  man's  head 
was  clean  cut  off,  provided  his  head  were  set  on  again  the 
right  way. 

63.  "  When  men  pretend  to  work  miracles,  and  talk  of 
immediate  revelations,  of  knowing  the  truth  by  revelation, 
and  of  more  than  ordinary  illumination  ;  we  ought  not  to 
be  frightened  by  those  big  words,  from  looking  what  is 
under  them  ;  nor  to  be  afraid  of  calling  those  things  into 
question,  which  we  see  set  off  with  such  high-flown  pre- 
tences. It  is  somewhat  strange  that  we  should  believe 
men  the  more,  for  that  very  reason,  upon  which  we  should 
believe  them  the  less. — Clagifs  Persuasive  to  an  Ingenuous 
Trial  of  Opinions.,  p.  19,  as  quoted  by  Tindal.,  p.  217. 

64.  St.  Chrysostom  declares,  "that  miracles  are  only 
proper  to  excite  sluggish  and  vulgar  minds,  that  men  of 
sense  have  no  occasion  for  them,  and  that  they  frequently 
carry  some  untoward  suspicion  along  with  them." — Quoted 
in  Middleton^s  Prefatory  Discourse  to  his  Letter  from  Rome, 
p.  104. 

In  this  sentiment  it  must  be  owned,  that  the  Christian 
saint  strikingly  coincides  with  the  Pagan  philosopher 
Polybius,  who  considered  all  miracles  as  fables,  invented 
to  preserve  in  the  vulgar  a  due  sense  of  respect  for  the 
deity." — Reimmann,  Hist.  Ath.  p.  233. 

65.  The  great  theologian,  Beausobre,  in  his  immense 
Histoire  de  Manichee,  tom.  2,  p.  568,  says,t  "  We  see   in 

*  See  siinilar  mystical  senses  of  the  epithets,  Christ  and  Chrest,  under  the  arti- 
cles Serapis,  and  Adrian's  Letter. 

t  "  On  voit  dans  Thistoire  que  j'ai  rapportee,  vme  sorte  d'hypocrisie,  qui  n'a 


68  ESSENES    OR    THERAPEUTS. 

the  history  which  I  have  related,  a  sort  of  hypocrisy,  that 
has  been  perhaps,  but  too  common  at  all  times  :  that 
churchmen  not  only  do  not  say  what  they  think,  but  they 
do  say,  the  direct  contrary  of  what  they  think.  Philo- 
sophers in  their  cabinets  ;  out  of  them,  they  are  content 
with  fables,  though  they  well  know  that  they  are  fables. 
Nay  more  :  they  deliver  honest  men  to  the  executioner, 
for  having  uttered  what  they  themselves  know  to  be  true. 
How  many  Atheists  and  Pagans  have  burned  holy  men 
under  the  pretext  of  heresy  ?  'Every  day  do  hypocrites  con- 
secrate, and  make  people  adore  the  host,  though  as  well 
convinced  as  I  am,  that  it  is  nothing  but  a  bit  of  bread. 

66.  The  learned  Grotins  has  a  similar  avowal:  "He 
that  reads  ecclesiastical  history,  reads  nothing  but  the 
roguery  and  folly  of  bishops  and  churchmen." — Grotii 
Epht.  22. 

No  man  could  quote  higher  authorities. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

OF    THE    ESSENES    OR    THERAPEUTS. 

A  KNOWLEDGE  of  the  character  and  tenets  of  that  most 
remarkable  set  of  men  that  ever  existed,  who  were  known 
by  the  nam'e  of  Essehes  or  Therapeuts,  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  a  fair  investigation  of  the  claims  of  the  New 
Testament,  in  the  origination  and  references  of  which, 
they  bear  so  prominent  a  part. 

The  celebrated  German  critic,  Michaelis,  whose  great 
work,  the  Introduction  to  the  .N'ew  Testament.,  has  been  trans- 
lated by  Dr.  Herbert  Marsh,  the  present  I^ord  Bishop  of 
Peterborough,  defines  them  as  "a  Jewish  sect,  which 
begin  to  spread  itself  at  Ephesus,  and  to  threaten  great 
mischief  to  Christianity,  in  the  time  (or,  indeed,  previous 
to  the  time)  of  St.  Paul  ;  on  which  account,  in  his  epistles 
to  the  Ephesians,  to  the  Colossians,  and  to  Timothy  ;  he 
declares  himself  openly  against  them."f 

peut-etre  cte  que  trop  coniniune  dans  tous  !es  tetns.  C'est  quo  des  ecclesiastiques, 
non  sculement  ne  dir-t'iit  pas  ce  qu'ils  peiisent,  mats  disent  tout  le  contiairc  de  ce 
qu'ils  pensent.  Philosophes  dans  leur  cabinet,  liors  dela,  ils  content  des  fal>l«g, 
quoinirils  saclnnt  bien  que  ce  sont  des  fables,  lis  font  plus  ;  ils  livrent  au  bour- 
reau  des  gens  de  bicns  pour  I'avoir  dit.  Coinbiens  d'athees  et  de  pmplianes  ont 
fait  bruler  de  saints  peisonnages,  sous  pietexte  d'heresie  !  Tous  les  jours  des 
hypix-  itcs,  consacrent  et  font  adorer  I'hostie,  bien  qu'ils  soienl  aussi  convaincus  que 
rnoi,  '|ue  ce  n'est  qu'un  rnorceau  de  pain." — Ibid. 

t  Michaelis,  vol.  4,  p.  79.  . 


ESSENES    OR    THERAPEUTS.  69 

But  surely  this  admission  of  the  sect's  beginning  to 
spread  itself  at  Ephesus,  and  its  existence  at  Colosse,  and 
in  the  diocese  of  Timothy,  to  a  sufficient  extent  to  call  for 
the  serious  opposition  of  one  who,  in  any  calculations  of 
chronology,  must  have  been  the  contemporary  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  is  no  disparagement  of  the  fact  of  its  previous 
establishment  in  Egypt  ;  while  the  admitted  fact,*  that 
these  three  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  in  which  he  so  earnestly 
opposes  himself  to  this  sect,  were  written  before  any  one 
of  our  four  Gospels,  involves  the  a  fortiori  demonstration  ; 
that  their  tenets  and  discipline,  whatever  they  were,  were 
not  corruptions  or  perversions  of  those  gospels,  however 
those  gospels  may  turn  out  to  be  improvements  or  plagia- 
risms upon  the  previously  established  tenets  and  discipline 
of  that  sect. 

The  ancient  writers  who  have  given  any  account  of  this 
sect,  are  Philo,  Josephus,  Pliny,  and  Solinus.  Infinite 
perplexity,  however,  is  occasioned  by  modern  historians 
attempting  to  describe  differences  and  distinctions  where 
there  are  really  none.  The  Therapeutce  and  the  Essencs  are 
one  and  the  same  sect  :  the  Therapeutce.,  which  is  Greek,  being 
nothing  more  than  Essenes,  which  is  of  the  same  sense  in 
Egyptian,  and  is  in  fact  a  translation  of  it  : — as,  perhaps, 
Surgeons,  Healers,  Curates,  or  the  most  vulgar  sense  of 
Doctors,  is  the  nearest  possible  plain  English  of  Thera- 
PEUT.«.  The  similarity  of  the  sentiments  of  the  Essenes, 
or  Therapeuta3,  to  those  of  the  church  of  Rome,  induced 
the  learned  Jesuit,  Nicolaus  Serarius,  to  seek  for  them 
an  honourable  origin.  He  contended,  therefore,  that  they 
were  Asideans,  and  derived  them  .  from  the  Rechabites, 
described  so  circumstantially  in  the  35th  chapter  of  Jere- 
miah ;  at  the  same  time,  he  asserted  that  the  first  Chris- 
tian monks  were  Essenes. 

Both  of  these  positions  were  denied  by  his  opponents, 
Drusius  and  Scaliger  ;  but  in  respect  to  the  latter,  says 
Michaelis,  certainly  Serarius  was  in  the  right. 

"  The  Essenes,"  he  adds,  "  were  indeed  a  Jewish,  and 
not  a  Christian  sect."  Why,  to  be  sure,  it  would  be  awk- 
ward enough  for  a  Christian  divine  to  admit  them  to  the 
honours  of  that  name  before  "  that  religion  which  St.  x'Vu- 
gustine  tells  us  '  was  before  in  the  world,'  began  to  be 
called  Christian."  (See  Admission  12.)  The  disciples  were 
called  Christians  first  at  Antioch  (Acts).  But  sure,  it  was 
something  more  than  the  name  that  made  them  such  ;  they 

*  It  is  admitted  by  Dr.  Lardner. 


60  ESSENES    OR    THERAPEUTS. 

were  none  the  less  what  the  name  signified,  ere  yet  it  was 
conferred  on  them  :  and  the  Essenes  had  every  thing  but 
the  name." 

"  It  is  evident,"  continues  Michaelis,  "  from  the  above- 
mentioned  epistles  of  St.  Paul,  that  to  the  great  morti- 
fication of  the  apostle,  they  insinuated  themselves  very 
early  into  the  Christian  church." 

But  is  it  not,  in  reason,  as  likely  that  the  Christians, 
who  were  certainly  the  last  comers,  should  have  insinuated 
themselves  into  the  Therapeutan  community  .? 

Eusebius  has  fully  shown  that  the  monastic  life  was 
derived  from  tlie  Essenes  ;  and,  because  many  Christians 
adopted  the  manners  of  the  Essenes,  Epiphanius  took  the 
Essenes  in  general  for  Christians,  and  confounded  them 
with  the  Nazarenes  : — a  confusion  to  which  the  similarity 
of  this  name,  to  that  of  the  Nazarites  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, might  in  some  measure  contribute.  But  we  find 
this  confusion  still  worse  confounded,  in  the  remarkable 
oversight  of  the  passage,  Matthew  ii.  23,  which  betrays 
that  Jesus  himself  was  believed  to  be  one  of  this  fraternity 
of  monks.* 

Montfaucon  and  Helyot  have  attempted  to  prove  them 
Christians,  but  have  been  confuted  by  Bouhier.  Lange 
has  contended  that  they  were  nothing  more  than  cu'cum- 
cised  Egyptians,  but  has  been  confuted  by  Henmann. — 
Marsh's  Michaelis,  vol.  4,  p.  79,  80,  81. 

"  It  was  in  Egypt,"  says  the  great  ecclesiastical  historian, 
Mosheim,  "that  the  morose  discipline  of  Asceticism f 
(i.  e.  the  Essenian  or  Therapeutan  discipline)  took  its  rise; 
and  it  is  observable,  that  that  country  has  in  all  times,  as 
it  were  by  an  immutable  law  or  disposition  of  nature, 
abounded  with  persons  of  a  melancholy  complexion,  and 
produced,  in  proportion  to  its  extent,  more  gloomy  spirits 
than  any  other  parts  of  the  world.  It  was  here  that  the 
Essenes  dwelt  principally,  long  before  the  coming  of  Christ. 
— Mosheim,  vol.  1,  p.  196. 

*  Matthew  ii.  2.3.  "  That  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the 
prophets,  He  shall  be  called  a  Nazarene  ;"  that  is  (as  we  see  from  Epiphanius),  a 
Therapeut.  It  is  certain  that  none  of  the  Jewish  prophets  had  so  said.  Some 
other  equally  sacred  writings  are  referred  to.  Though  their  accomplishment  by 
the  mere  resemblance  of  the  name  of  the  city  in  which  Jesus  is  said  to  have  resi- 
ded, to  that  of  the  order  of  monks  to  which  he  was  believed  to  have  belonged,  is  a 
most  miserable  pun.  The  Jews,  however,  who  think  it  reasonable  to  admit  that 
such  a  person  as  Jesus  really  existed,  place  his  birth  near  a  century  sooner  than  the 
generally  assumed  cpocha. — Basnage  Histoire  des  Juifs,  1.  5,  c.  14,  15. 

t  From  the  Greek  uoxijtn?,  exercise,  discipline,  study,  meditation,  signify- 
ing also  3elf-rnortification. 


ESSENES    OR    THERAPEUTS.  61 

It  is  not  the  first  glance,  nor  a  cursory  observance,  that 
will  sufficiently  admonish  the  reader  of  the  immense  his- 
torical wealth  put  into  his  hand,  by  this  stupendous  admis- 
sion, this  surrender  of  the  key-stone  of  the  mighty  arch, — 
this  giving-up  of  every  thing  that  can  be  pretended  for  the 
evidences  of  the  Christian  religion. 

This  admission  of  the  great  ecclesiastical  historian  (than 
whom  there  is  no  greater) ,  will  serve  us  as  the  Pythagorean 
theorem — the  great  geometrical  element  of  all  subsequent 
science,  of  continual  recurrence,  of  infinite  application — 
ever  to  be  borne  in  mind,  always  to  be  brought  in  proof — 
presenting  the  means  of  solving  every  difficulty,  and  the 
clue  for  guiding  us  to  every  truth.  "  Bind  it  about  thy 
neck,  write  it  upon  the  tablet  of  thy  heart  " — Every 
THING  OF  Christianity  is  of  Egyptian  origin. 

The  first  and  greatest  library  that  ever  was  in  the  world, 
was  at  Alexandria  in  Egypt.  The  first  of  that  most 
mischievous  of  all  institutions — ^universities,  was  the 
University  of  Alexandria  in  Egypt ;  where  lazy  monks  and 
wily  fanatics  first  found  the  benefit  of  clubbing  together, 
to  keep  the  privileges  and  advantages  of  learning  to  them- 
selves, and  concocting  holy  mysteries  and  inspired  legends, 
to  be  dealt  out  as  the  craft  should  need,  for  the  perpetu- 
ation of  ignorance  and  superstition,  and  consequently  of 
the  ascendency  of  jugglers  and  Jesuits,  holy  hypocrites, 
and  reverend  rogues,  among  men. 

All  the  most  valued  manuscripts,  of  the  Christian  scrip- 
tures are  Codices  Alexandrini.  The  very  first  bishops  of 
whom  we  have  any  account,  were  bishops  of  Alexandria. 
Scarcely  one  of  the  more  eminent  fathers  of  the  Christian 
church  is  there,  who  had  not  been  educated  and  trained  in 
the  arts  of  priestly  fraud,  in  the  University  of  Jllexandria, — 
that  great  sewer  of  the  congregated  feculencies  of  fana- 
ticism. 

In  those  early  times,  the  professions  of  Medicine  and 
Divinity  were  inseparable.  We  read  of  the  divinity  stu- 
dents studying  medicine  in  the  School,  or  University  of 
Alexandria,  to  which  all  persons  resorted,  who  were  after- 
wards to  practice  in  either  way,  on  the  weak  in  body  or 
the  weak  in  mind,  among  their  fellow  creatures.  The 
Therapeuts,  or  Essenes,  as  their  name  signifies,  were 
expressly  professors  of  the  art  of  healing — an  art  in  those 
days  necessarily  conferring  the  most  mystical  sanctity  of 
character  on  all  who  were  endued  with  it,  and  the  most 
convenient  of  all  others  for  the  purposes  of  imposture  and 
7 


62  ESSENES    OR    THERAPEUTS 

wonderment.  It  was  invariably  considered  to  be  attainable 
only  by  the  especial  g-ift  of  heaven,*  and  no  cure  of  any 
sort,  or  in  any  way  effected,  was  ever  ascribed  to  natural 
causes  merely.  Those  who,  after  due  training  in  the 
ascetic  discipline,  were  sent  out  from  the  university  of 
Alexandria  to  practice  their  divinely  acquired  art  in  the 
towns  and  villages,  were  recognized  as  regular  or  canonical 
apostles  :  while  those  who  had  not  obtained  their  credentials 
from  the  college,  who  set  up  for  themselves,  or  who,  after 
having  left  the  college,  ceased  to  recognise  its  appoint- 
ment, were  called  false  apostles,  quacks,  heretics,  and  em- 
pirics. And  in  several  of  the  early  apocryphal  scrip- 
tures, we  find  the  titles  Jlpostolici  and  Jipotactici  (aposto- 
lical, and  apotactical,  i.  e.  of  the  monkish  order  of  Apo- 
tactites,  or  Solitaires,)  perfectly  synonimous.  Eusebius 
emphatically  calls  the  apotactical  Therapeuts  apostolical. 
"  Philo  (he  says)  wrote  also  a  treatise  on  the  contemplative 
life,  or  the  Worshippers  ;  from  whence,  we  have  borrowed 
those  things,  which  we  allege  concerning  the  manner  of 
life  of  those  apostolical  men."f  Indeed,  Christ  himself,  is 
represented  as  describing  his  apostles  as  members  of  this 
solitary  order  of  monks,  and  being  one  himself  : — "  They 
are  not  of  the  world,  even  as  I  am  not  of  the  world.'''' — John 
xvii.  16.  What  then  but  monks  ?  The  seceders  or  dis- 
senters (and  of  this  class  was  St.  Paul),|  upon  finding  the 
advantage  of  setting  up  in  the  trade  upon  their  own  inde- 
pendent foundation,  pleaded  their  success  in  miracles  of 
healing,  as  evidence  of  their  divine  commission  ;  and  abun- 
dantly returned  the  revilings  of  the  Therapeutan  college. 
Unaided  by  the  lights  of  anatomy,  and  unfounded  on 
any  principles  of  rational  science  ;  recovery  from  disease 
could  only  be  ascribed  to  supernatural  powers.  A  fever 
was  supposed  to  be  a  dromon  that  had  taken  up  his  abode 
in  the  body  of  the  unfortunate  patient,  and  was  to  be 
expelled,  not  by  any  virtue  of  material  causes  ;  but  by 
incantations,  spells,  and  leucomancy,  or  white  magic ;  as 
opposed  to  necromancy,  or  black  magic,  by  which  diseases 
and  evils  of  all  sorts  were  believed  to  be  incurred.  The 
white   magic   consisted    of   prayers,    fastings,§    baptisms, 

*  "  To  another  the  gifts  of  healing,  by  the  same  Spirit.  Have  all  thegifls  of 
healing  ?"  1  Cor.  xii. — Query.  How  did  he  spend  tliree  years  in  Arabia,  but  in 
a  course  of  study  for  the  ministry  ? 

t  O  {Xoyog)  niQi  (its  StuiQt]T$XH,  ij  ixiTtor,  »|  «,  ra  ntQt  t«  (?i8  twv  anoaroXixon 
aviquiv  SitXriXvSauiv. — Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  2,  c.  17,  A.  t  Galat.  i.  17. 

§  "  Howbeit  this  kind  goeth  not  out  but  by  prayer  and  fasting."  Matt. 
;iviii.  21. 


ESSENES    OR    THERAPEUTS.  63 

sacraments,  &c.  which  were  believed  to  have  the  same 
power  over  good  dcemons,  and  even  over  God  himself,  as 
the  black  magic  had  over  evil  dajmons  and  their  supreme 
head,  the  Devil.  The  trembling  patient  was  only  entitled 
to  expect  his  cure  in  proportion  to  his  faith,  to  believe 
without  understanding,  and  to  surrender  his  fortune  and 
life  itself  to  the  purposes  of  his  physician,  and  to  the 
business  of  imposing  upon  others,  the  deceits  that  had 
been  practised  upon  himself. 

Even  to  this  day,  the  name  retained  by  our  sacred 
writings,  is  derived  from  the  belief  of  their  magical  influ- 
ence, as  a  spell  or  charm  of  God,  to  drive  away  diseases. 
The  Irish  peasantry  still  continue  to  tie  passages  of 
St.  John's  Spell,  or  St.  John's  God's-spell,  to  the  horns 
of  cows  to  make  them  give  more  milk  ;  nor  would  any 
powers  of  rational  argument  shake  their  conviction  of  the 
efficacy  of  a  bit  of  the  word,  tied  round  a  colt's  heels,  to  pre- 
vent them  from  swelling 

It  will  become  physicians  of  higher  claims  to  science 
and  rationaUty,  to  triumph  over  the  veterinary  piety  of  the 
Bog  of  Allen,  when  their  own  forms  of  prescription  shall 
no  longer  betray  the  wish  to  conceal  from  the  patient 
the  nature  of  the  ingredients  to  which  he  is  to  trust  his 
life,  nor  bear,  as  the  first  mark  of  the  pen  upon  the  paper, 
the  mystical  hieroglyphic  of  Jupiter,  the  talismanic  R, 
under  whose  influence  the  prescribed  herbs  were  to  be 
gathered,  and  from  whose  miraculous  agency  their  opera- 
tion was  to  be  expected. 

The  Therapeutse  of  Egypt,  from  whom  are  descended 
the  vagrant  hordes  of  Jews  and  Gypsies,  had  well  found 
by  what  arts  mankind  were  to  be  cajoled ;  and  as  they 
boasted  their  acquaintance  with  the  sanative  qualities  of 
herbs  of  all  countries  ;  so  in  their  extensive  peregrinations 
through  all  the  then  known  regions  of  the  earth,  they  had 
not  failed  to  bring  home,  and  remodel  to  their  own  pur- 
poses, those  sacred  spells  or  religious  romances,  which 
they  found  had  been  successfully  palmed  on  the  credulity 
of  remote  nations.  Hence  the  Indian  Chrishna  might  have 
become  the  Therapeutan  head  of  the  order  of  spiritual 
physicians. 

No  principle  was  held  more  sacred  than  that  of  the 
necessity  of  keeping  the  sacred  writings  from  the  know- 
ledge of  the  people.  Nothing  could  be  safer  from  the 
danger  of  discovery  than  the  substitution,  with  scarce  a 
change  of  names,  "  of  the  incarnate  Deity  of  the  Sanscrit 


64  ESSENES    OR    THERAPEUTS. 

Romance"  for  the  imaginary  founder  of  the  Therapeutan 
college.  What  had  been  said  to  have  been  done  in  India, 
could  be  as  well  said  to  have  been  done  in  Palestine. 
The  change  of  names  and  places,  and  the  mixing  up  of 
various  sketches  of  the  Egyptian,  Phoenician,  Greek,  and 
Roman  mythology,  would  constitute  a  sufficient  disguise 
to  evade  the  languid  curiosity  of  infant  scepticism.  A 
knowledge  within  the  acquisition  only  of  a  few,  and  which 
the  strongest  possible  interest  bound  that  few  to  hold 
inviolate,  would  soon  pass  entirely  from  the  records  of 
human  memory.  A  long  continued  habit  of  imposing  upon 
others  would  in  time  subdue  the  minds  of  the  impostors 
themselves,  and  cause  them  to  become  at  length  the  dupes 
of  their  own  deception,  to  forget  the  temerity  in  which 
their  first  assertions  had  originated,  to  catch  the  infection 
of  the  prevailing  credulity,  and  to  believe  their  own  lie. 

In  such,  the  known  and  never-changing  laws  of  nature, 
and  the  invariable  operation  of  natural  causes,  we  find 
the  solution  of  every  difficulty  and  perplexity  that  remote- 
ness of  time  might  throw  in  the  way  of  our  judgment  of 
past  events. 

But  when,  to  such  an  apparatus  of  rational  probability, 
we  are  enabled  to  bring  in  the  absolute  ratification  of 
unquestionable  testimony, — to  show  that  what  was  in 
supposition  more  probable  than  any  thing  else  that  could 
be  supposed,  was  in  fact  that  which  absolutely  took 
place, — we  have  the  highest  degree  of  evidence  of  which 
history  is  capable  ;  we  can  give  no  other  definition  of 
historical  truth  itself. 

The  prohahility^  then,  that  that  sect  of  vagrant  quack- 
doctors,  the  Therapeutffi,  who  were  established  in  Egypt 
and  its  neighbourhood  many  ages  before  the  period  assigned 
by  later  theologians  as  that  of  the  birth  of  Christ,  were  the 
original  fabricators  of  the  writings  contained  in  the  New 
Testament;  becomes  certainty  on  the  basis  of  evidence,  than 
which  history  hath  nothing  more  certain — by  the  unguard- 
ed, but  explicit — unwary,  but  most  unqualified  and  positive, 
statement  of  the  historian  Eusebius,  that  " //lose  ancient 
Therapeutce  were  Christians,  and  that  their  ancient  wi^itings 
were  our  Gospels  and  Epistles.'"*  The  wonder  with  which 
Lardner  quotes  this  astonishing  confession  of  the  great 

*  The  above  most  important  passag(3  of  nil  ecclesiastical  records,  is  in  the 
2d  book,  the  17th  chapter,  and  53d  and  following  pages  of  his  History.  The 
title  cf  a  whole    chapter  (the  fourth  of  the  first  book)  of  this  work  is,  that 

THE  RELIGION  PUBLISHED  BY  JeSUS  ChRIST  TO  ALL  NATIONS  IS  NEI- 
THER   NEW    NOR    STaANGE. 


ESSENES    OR    THERAPEUTS.  65 

pillar  of  the  pretended  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion,* 
only  shows  how  aware  he  was  of  the  fatal  inferences  with 
which  it  teems. 

It  is  most  essentially  observable,  that  the  Essenes  or 
Therapeuts,  in  addition  to  their  monopoly  of  the  art  of 
healing,  professed  themselves  to  be  Eclectics ;  they  held 
Plato  in  the  highest  esteem,  though  they  made  no  scruple 
to  join  with  his  doctrines,  whatever  they  thought  con- 
formable to  reason  in  the  tenets  and  opinions  of  the  other 
philosophers. 

"  These  sages  were  of  opinion  that  true  philosophy ^f  the 
greatest  and  most  salutary  gift  of  God  to  mortals,  was 
scattered,  in  various  portions,  through  all  the  different 
sects  ;  and  that  it  was,  consequently,  the  duty  of  every 
wise  man  to  gather  it  from  the  several  corners  where  it  lay 
dispersed,  and  to  employ  it,  thus  re-united,  in  destroying 
the  dominion  of  impiety  and  vice."|  The  principal  seat 
of  this  philosophy  was  at  AUxandrici;  and  "  it  manifestly 
appears,""  says  Mosheim,§  "  from  the  testimony  of  Philo 
the  Jew,  who  was  himself  one  of  this  sect,  that  this 
(Eclectic)  philosophy  (of  this  Essenian  or  Therapeutan 
sect)  was  in  a  flourishing  state  at  Mexandria  when  our 
Saviour  was  upon  earth." — Eccl.  Hist.  Cent.  1,  p.  1. 

1.  We  have  only  to  collate  the  admission  of  the  ortho- 
dox Lactantius,  that  Christianity  itself  was  the  Eclectic 
Philosophy,  inasmuch  as  that  "  if  there  had  been  any  one 
to  have  collected  the  truth  that  was  scattered  and  diffused 
among  the  various  sects  of  philosophers  and  divines  into 
one,  and  to  have  reduced  it  into  a  system,  there  would 
indeed  be  no  difference  between  him  and  a  Christian  :"|| 
2.  To  compare  the  various  tenets  and  speculations  of  the 
different  philosophers  and  religionists  of  antiquity  with 
the  strong  and  particular  smatch  of  the  Platonic  philo- 
sophy, which  we  actually  see  pervading  the  New  Testa- 
ment :  and  to  add  the  weight  in  all  reason  and  fairness 
due  to  the  positive  testimony  of  that  unquestionably 
learned  and  intelligent  Manichsean  Christian  and  bishop, 
Faustus, — that  "it  is  an  undoubted  fact,  that  the  New 
Testament  was  not  written  by  Christ  himself,  nor  by  his 

*  Credibility,  vol.  2,  4to.  p.  361. 

t  Obserre  well,  the  phrases, — "  the  philosophy — our  philosophy,"  and  the 
"  true  philosophy,"  occur  throughout  the  Fathers,  in  a  hundred  passages  for  one, 
where  "  Christianity"  should  have  been  the  word. 

i  Mosheim,  vol.  i.  p.  169. 

§  Ibid.  p.  37. 

II  Admission  No.  10  in  the  chapter  of  Admiss  ions. 

7* 


66  CHRISTIAN    SCRIPTURES    ANTERIOR    TO    CHRIST. 

apostles,  but  a  long  while  after  their  time,  by  some 
unknown  persons,  who,  lest  they  should  not  be  credited 
when  they  wrote  of  affairs  they  were  little  acquainted 
with,  affixed  to  their  works  the  names  of  apostles,  or  of 
such  as  were  supposed  to  have  been  their  companions, 
and  then  said  that  they  were  written  according  to  them." — 
Faust,  lib.  2. 

To  this  important  passage,  of  which  I  reserve  the 
original  text  for  my  next  occasion  of  quoting  it,*  I  here 
subjoin  what  the  same  high  authority  objects,  if  possibly 
with  still  increasing  emphasis,  against  the  arguments  of 
St.  Augustine  :+ — "  For  many  things  have  been  inserted 
by  your  ancestors  in  the  speeches  of  our  Lord,  which, 
though  put  forth  under  his  name,  agree  not  with  his  faith  ; 
especially  since, — as  already  it  has  been  often  proved 
by  us, — that  these  things  were  not  written  by  Christ,  nor 
his  apostles,  but  a  long  while  after  their  assumption,  by 
I  know  not  what  sort  of  half-jews,  not  even  agreeing 
with  themselves,  who  made  up  their  tale  out  of  reports 
and  opinions  merely  ;  and  yet,  fathering  the  whole  upon 
the  names  of  the  apostles  of  the  Lord,  or  on  those  who 
were  supposed  to  have  followed  the  apostles  ;  they  men- 
daciously pretended  that  they  had  written  their  lies  and 
conceits,  according  to  them."  The  conclusion  is  irre- 
sistible. 


CHAPTER    VIIL 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCRIPTURES,  DOCTRINES,  DISCIPLINE,  AND 
ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY,  LONG  ANTERIOR  TO  THE  PERIOD 
ASSIGNED    AS    THAT    OF    THE    BIRTH    OF    CHRIST. 

From  the  more  general  account  of  that  remarkable  sect 
of  philosophical  religionists,  the  Egyptian  Therapeuts, 
which  we  have  collected  from  the  admissions  of  the  most 

*  In  chapter  15. 

t  "  Multa  enim  a  majoribus  vestris,  eloquiis  Domini  nostri  inserta  verba  sunt  ; 
qu8E  nomine  Bignata  ipsius,  cum  ejus  fide  non  congruant,  praesertim,  quia,  ut  jam 
Bsepe  probatum  a  nobis  est,  nee  ab  ipso  htic  sunt,  nee  ab  ejus  apostoiis  scripta,  sed 
multo  post  eorum  assumptionem,  a  ne.«cio  quibus-,  et  ipsis  inter  se  non  eoncordanti- 
bus  SEMi-jUDJEis,  per  famas  opinionesque  comperta  sunt ;  qui  lamen  omnia 
eadem  in  apostolorum  Domini  conferentes  noinina,  vel  eorum  qui  secuti  apostolos 
viderentur,  errores  ac  mendacia  sua  secM/tfium  eos  se  scripsisse  mentiti  sunt." — 
Fau»t.  lib.  33,  c.  3. 


CHRISTIAN    SCRIPTURES    ANTERIOR    TO    CHRIST.  67 

strenuous  defenders  of  the  evidences  of  the  Christian 
religion  ;  we  pass  into  the  more  immediate  sanctuary  of 
the  sect  itself,  to  learn  from  the  unquestionable  authority 
of  one  who  was  a  member  of  their  community,  all  that 
can  now  be  known  of  what  their  scriptures,  doctrines, 
discipline,  and  ecclesiastical  polity,  were. 

On  the  threshold  of  this  avenue,  we  only  pause  to  re- 
capitulate for  the  reader's  admonition,  the  certainties  of 
information  already  established ;  which,  carrying  with  him 
through  the  important  discoveries  to  which  we  now  ap- 
proach, he  shall  with  the  quicker  apprehension  discern, 
and  with  the  easier  method  weigh  and  appreciate  the 
value  of  the  further  information  to  which  now  we  tend. 

1.  The  Essenes,  the  Therapeuts,  the  Ascetics,  the 
Monks,  the  Ecclesiastics,  and  the  Eclectics,  are  but  differ- 
ent names  for  one  and  the  self-same  sect. 

2.  The  word  Essene  is  nothing  more  than  the  Egyptian 
w»rd  for  that  of  which  Therapeut  is  the  Greek,  each  of 
them  signifying  healer  or  doctor,  and  designating  the  char- 
acter of  the  sect  as  professing  to  be  endued  with  the 
miraculous  gift  of  healing;  and  more  especially  so  with 
respect  to  the  diseases  of  the  mind. 

3.  Their  name  of  Ascetics  indicated  the  severe  discipline 
and  exercise  of  self-mortification,  long  fastings,  prayers, 
contemplation,  and  even  making  of  themselves  eunuchs  for 
the  kingdom  of  hcaven''s  sake,*  as  did  Origen,  Melito,  and 
others,  who  derived  their  Christianity  from  the  same 
school  ;  and  as  Christ  himself  is  represented  to  have  re- 
cognised and  approved  their  practice. 

4.  Their  name  of  Monks  indicated  their  delight  in  soli- 
tude, their  contemplative  life,  and  their  entire  segregation 
and  abstraction  from  the  world  :  which  Christ,  in  the 
Gospel,  is  in  like  manner  represented,  as  describing  as 
characteristic  of  the  community  of  which  he  himself  was 
a  member,  f 

6.  Their  name  of  Ecclesiastics  was  of  the  same  sense, 
and  indicated  their  being  called  out,  elected,  separated 
from  the  general  fraternity  of  mankind,  and  set  apart  to 
the  more  immediate  service  and  honour  of  God. 

6.  Their  name  of  Eclectics  indicated   that  their  divine 

*  "  And  there  be  eunuchs,  which  have  made  themselves  eunuchs  for  the  king- 
dom of  heaven's  sake.  He  that  is  able  to  receive  it,  let  him  receive  it."  Matt. 
xix.  12. 

t  "  They  are  not  of  the  world,  even  as  I  am  not  of  the  world."  John  xvii.  16. 
"  I  pray  for  them,  I  pray  not  for  the  world."  Ibid.  9.  Surely,  the  world  ought 
to  be  much  obliged  to  him  ! 


68  CHRISTIAN    SCRIPTURES    ANTERIOR    TO    CHRIST. 

philosophy  was  a  collection  of  all  the  diverging  rays  of 
truth  which  were  scattered  througli  the  various  systems 
of  Pagan  and  Jewish  piety,  into  one  bright  focus — that 
their  religion  was  made  up  of  "  whatsoever  things  are  true, 
whatsoever  things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  what' 
soever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever 
things  are  of  good  report — if  there  were  any  virtue,  and  if  there 
were  any  praise,''^  (Phil.  iv.  8,)  wherever  found  ;  alike  indif- 
ferent, whether  it  were  derived  from  "saint,  from  savage, 
or  from  sage — Jehovah,  Jove,  or  Lord." 

7.  They  had  a  flourishing  university,  or  corporate  body, 
established  upon  these  principles  at  Alexandria  in  Egypt, 
long  before  the  period  assigned  to  the  birth  of  Christ. 

8.  From  this  body  they  sent  out  missionaries,  and  had 
established  colonies,  auxiliary  branches,  and  affiliated 
communities,- in  various  cities  of  Asia  Minor  ;  which  colo- 
nies were  in  a  flourishing  condition,  before  the  preaching 
of  St.  Paul.  . 

9.  Eusebius,  from  whom  all  our  knowledge  of  eccle- 
siastical antiquity  is  derived,  declares  his  opinion,  that 
"the  sacred  writings  used  by  this  sect,  were  none  other 
than  our  Gospels,  and  the  writings  of  the  apostles ;  and 
that  certain  Diegeses,  after  the  manner  of  allegorical 
interpretations  of  the  ancient  prophets  ;  these  were  their 
epistles."* 

10.  It  is  certain,  that  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  and  the 
whole  system  of  Christianity,  as  conveyed  to  us  upon  the 
credit  of  the  fathers  ;  do  at  this  day  bear  the  character  of 
being  such  an  Eclectic  epitome  or  selection  from  all  the 
forms  of  religion  and  philosophy  then  known  in  the  world, 
as  these  Eclectic  philosophers  professed  to  have  formed. 

11.  It  is  certain  that  our  three  first  Gospels  were  not 
written  by  the  persons  whose  names  they  bear,  but  are 
derived  from  an  earlier  draft  of  the  evangelical  story, 
which  was  entitled  the  Diegesis, 

With  these  lights  in  thy  hand,  enter  reader,  on  the  stu- 
pendous vista  that  I  unlock  for  thee,  by  the  best  transla- 
tion I  could  make,  and  better  than  any  that  I  could  find 
ready-made,  of  the  most  important  historical  document  in 
the  whole  world :  whichever  be  the  second  in  importance. 

*  Ta^a  d^tixoi  a  tptiaiv  aQxaiuv  Ttao  avTote;  urai  ovyy^nn^jara,  tvay  ytkiu,  xai 
Tag  Tiov  aTToaroXmv  yQaifa(;,  AlHTH^EI-  rt  tmoc  xara  10  tixoi;  rwv  TiaXat 
TTpoyiTo)!'  ipi(r;vfvTi>fuc — tTi idTolat,  ravra  iivai, — Euseb.  Ec.  His.  lib,  2,  c.  16. 
fol.  ed.  Colonics  Allobrogum,  1612,  j9.  60,  ad  literam  D,  linea  6. 


CHRISTIAN    SCRIPTURES    ANTERIOR    TO    CHRIST.  69 

The  Sixteenth  Chapter  of  the   Second  Book  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
History^  of  Eusebius  Pamphilus. 

"  St.  Mark,  the  Evangelist,  is  said  first  to  have  been 
sent  into  Egypt,  and  to  have  preached  there  the  same 
gospel  which  he  afterwards  committed  to  writing.  There 
he  established  the  churches  of  Alexandria ;  and  so  great  was 
the  number  of  both  men  and  women  that  became  believers 
upon  his  first  address,  on  account  of  the  more  philosophi- 
cal and  intense  Asceticism,  (which  he  both  taught  and 
practised,)  that  Philo  has  seen  fit  to  write  a  history  of 
their  manner  of  living,  their  assemblies,  their  sacred 
feasts,  and  their  whole  course  of  life. 

1 .  He  so  accurately  details  the  manner  of  living  of  those 
who  with  us  have  been  called  Ascetics,  as  to  seem  not 
merely  the  historian  Of  their  most  remarkable  tenets,  nor 
as  being  acquainted  with  them  merely  ;  but  as  having  em- 
braced them  ;  and  both  joining  their  religious  rites,  and 
extolling  those  apostolical  men,  who,  as  it  is  likely,  were 
descended  from  Hebrews,  and  who  therefore  were  wont 
to  observe  very  many  of  the  customs  of  the  ancients,  after 
a  more  Jewish  fashion. 

2.  In  the  first  place,  then,  in  the  discourse  which  he  has 
written  concerning  the  contemplative  life,  or  of  men  of  prayer ; 
having  pledged  himself  to  add  nothing  to  his  history  of  a 
foreign  nature,  of  his  own  invention,  or  beyond  truth  ;  he 
mentions  that  they  were  called  healers,  or  curates,  and  the 
women  who  were  among  them  doctresses,  or  Therapeu- 
tesses  ;  adding  the  reasons  of  such  a  designation,  that  as 
a  sort  of  physicians,  delivering  the  souls  of  those  who  ap- 
plied to  them  from  evil  passions,  they  healed  and  restored 
them  to  virtue ;  or  on  account  of  their  pure  and  sincere 
ministry  and  religion  with  respect  to  the  Deity. 

3.  Whether,  therefore,  of  himself,  as  writing  suitably  to 
their  maimers,  Philo  gave  them  this  designation  :  or 
whether,  indeed,  the  first  of  that  sect  took  the  name 
when  the  appellation  of  Christians  had  as  yet  been  no 
where  announced,  it  is  by  no  means  necessary  to  discuss  ; 

4.  So  at  the  same  time,  in  his  narration,  he  bears  wit- 
ness to  their  renunciation  of  property,  in  the  first  instance  ; 

5.  And  that,  as  soon  as  they  begin  to  philosophise,  they 
divest  themselves  of  all  revenues  of  their  estates  ; 

6.  And  then,  having  laid  aside  all  the  anxieties  of  life  ; 
and  leaving  society,  they  make  their  residence  in  solitary 
wilds  and  gardens  ; 


70  CHRISTIAN    SCRIPTURES    ANTERIOR    TO    CHRIST. 

7.  "  For  from  the  time  that  they  resolved  from  enthu- 
siasm and  the  most  ardent  faith  (which  indeed  was  need- 
ful), to  practice  themselves  in  the  emulation  of  the  pro- 
phetic life,  they  were  well  aware  that  converse  with 
persons  of  dissimilar  sentiments,  would  be  unprofitable 
and  hurtful  : 

8.  Even  as  it  is  related  in  the  accredited  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,*  that  all  who  were  known  of  the  apostles  (had 
imbibed  their  doctrine)  were  wont  to  sell  their  possessions 
and  substance,  and  divided  them  among  all,  according  as 
any  one  had  need,  so  that  there  was  not  one  among  them 
in  want ; 

9.  For,  whoever  were  owners  of  estates  or  houses,  as 
the  wordj  says,  sold  them,  and  brought  the  prices  of  the 
things  sold,  and  laid  them  at  the  apostles'  feet,  that  it 
might  be  divided  to  each  as  every  one  had  need. 

10.  Philo  relates  things  exactly  similar  to  these  which 
we  have  referred  to  ;  bearing  witness  to  their  resemblance, 
even  to  the  letter,  saying, 

1 1 .  For  though  this  race  of  men  are  to  be  found  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  :  nor  would  it  be  fitting  that  either 
Greece  or  Barbary  should  not  participate  in  so  perfect  a 
good  ;  yet  they  abound  in  Egypt,  in  each  of  the  provinces 
called  the  Pasturages,  and  more  especially  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Alexandria  ; 

12.  And  the  best  of  men,  from  all  parts  of  the  world, 
betake  themselves  to  the  country  of  the  Therapeutse,  as 
to  a  colony,  in  some  most  convenient  place  ;  such  as  is 
situate  near  the  Lake  of  Maria,J  on  a  small  eminence,  very 
opportune  both  on  account  of  its  safety,  and  the  agreeable 
temperature  of  the  climate. 

13.  And  so,  after  having  described  what  sort  of  habita- 
tions they  occupied,  he  speaks  of  the  churches^  established 
throughout  the  country,  as  follows  : 

14.  In  each  parish  there  is  a  sacred  edifice  which  is 
called  the  temple,  and  a  monastcry,\\  in  which  the  monks 
perform  the  mysteries  of  the  sublime  life,  taking  nothing 
with  them,  neither  meat  nor  drink,  nor  any  thing  neces- 
sary for  the  wants  of  the  body  ;  but  the  laws,  the  divinely 
inspired  oracles  of  the  prophets,  and  hynms,  and  such 
other  things  as  in  which  is  understanding,  and  by  which 
true  piety  IS  increased  and  perfected  ; 

15.  Arid  among  other  things,  he  says,  that  their  religious 
exercise  occupies  the  whole  time  from  morn  till  evening  ; 

*  Acts  jv.  t  Nota  bene.  t  Nota  bene 

§  Nota  bene.  II  Nota  bene. 


CHRISTIAN    SCRIPTURES    ANTERIOR    TO    CHRIST.  71 

16.  *'  For  those  who  preside  over  the  holy  scriptures, 
philosophise  upon  them,  expounding  their  literal  sense  by- 
allegory  ; 

17.  Since  they  hold  that  the  sense  of  the  spoken  mean- 
ing is  of  a  hidden  nature,  indicated  in  a  double  sense.* 

18.  They  have  also  the  writings  of  the  ancients  :  and 
those  who  were  the  first  leaders  of  their  sect,  have  left 
them  many  records  of  the  sense  conveyed  in  those  alle- 
gories :  using  which  as  a  sort  of  examples,  they  imitate 
the  manner  of  the  original  doctrine  .-f 

19.  And  these  things,  it  seems,  are  reported  by  a  man 
wholistened  to  the  holy  scriptures,  asthey  expounded  them ; 

20.  And,  in  short,  it  is  very  likely  that  those  scriptures 
of  the  ancients,  of  which  he  speaks,  were  the  Gospels,  and 
the  writings  of  the  Apostles  ; 

21.  And  that  certain  Diegeses,:):  as  it  seems,  of  the 
ancient  prophets,  interpreted  ;  such  as  the  Epistle  of  Paul 
to  the  Hebrews  contains,  and  many  others — these  were 
the  Epistles. 

22.  So,  again,  he  proceeds  to  write  concerning  the  new 
Psalms  which  they  make  : 

23.  For  they  do  not  confine  themselves  to  contempla- 
tion, but  they  compose  canticles  and  hymns  to  God,  ar- 
ranged conveniently  in  every  measure,  and  in  the  most 
sublime  sorts  of  metre. 

24.  And  many  other  things  he  relates  in  the  discourse 
of  which  we  treat  ; 

25.  But  these  it  seemed  necessary  to  recount,  in  which 
the  characteristics  of  the  ecclesiastical  institution^  are  laid 
down. 

26.  But  if  it  seem  to  any  one  that  what  has  been  said  is 
not  strictly  and  essentially  meant  of  the  gospel  polity,  but 
may  be  thought  to  harmonise  with  other  things  than  those 
referred  to,  he  may  be  convinced  by  the  very  words  of 
Philo,  in  order  following  (so  he  be  but  an  impartial  judge), 
in  which  he  will  receive  an  unanswerable  testimony  on 
this  matter  ;  for  thus  he  writes  : 

27.  And  laying  down  temperance\\  as  a  sort  of  foundation 
to  the  soul,  they  build  the  other  virtues  upon  it ; 

28.  '  Neither  meat  nor  drink  do  any  of  them  take  before 
sun-set,'  as  considering  the  business  of  philosophy  worthy 
of  the  light,  but  the  necessities  of  the  body  only  apt  for 
darkness ; 

*  Nota  bene.  t  Nota  bene.  t  Nota  bene.  §  Nota  bene. 

II  EyxQaTttav,  continence,  temperance,  abstinence,  from  whence  their  name 
Encratites,  or  Abstainers. 


72  CHRISTIAN    SCRIPTURES    ANTERIOR    TO    CHRIST. 

29.  Whence  to  this  they  assigned  the  day,  but  only  a 
small  part  of  the  night  to  that ; 

30.  And  some  of  them  think  not  of  nourishment  for 
three  days,  so  much  greater  is  their  desire  of  under- 
standing ; 

31.  And  some  so  delight  themselves  and  triumph,  as 
banquetted  on  wisdom,  so  richly  and  satisfactorily  minis- 
tering her  doctrine  ;  as  to  abstain  for  a  double  length  of 
time,  and  scarce  after  six  days  to  taste  of  necessary  food 
in  the  way  of  eating  ! 

32.  These  clear  and  indisputable  remarks  of  Philo,  we 
consider  to  be  spoken  of  men  of  our  religion  only* 

33.  But  if  any  one  should  yet  be  so  hardened  as  to  con- 
tradict these  things,  yet  may  he  be  moved  from  his  incre- 
dulity, yielding  to  such  cogent  evidences  as  can  be  found 
with  none,  but  07ily  in  the  religion  of  Christians  according  to 
the  Gospel  :f 

34.  For  he  mentions,  that  even  women  are  found  among 
the  men  of  whom  we  speak,  and  that  many  of  them  are 
virgins,  at  an  extreme  age  ;  preserving  their  chastity,  not 
from  necessity,  like  the  sacred  virgins  among  the  Greeks, 
but  from  a  voluntary  law,  from  their  zeal  and  desire  of 
wisdom  ; 

35.  With  whom  studying  to  live,  they  have  abjured  the 
pleasures  of  the  body,  no  longer  desiring  a  mortal  offspring, 
but  that  which  is  immortal,  and  which  'tis  certain. that  the 
soul  which  loves  God  can  alone  beget  upon  itself. 

3Q.  From  whence  proceeding,  he  delivers  these  things 
still  more  emphatically  : 

37.  That  their  expositions  of  the  holy  scriptures  are, 
by  an  under-sense,  delivered  in  allegories  ;| 

38.  For  the  whole  divine  revelation,  to  these  men  seems 
to  resemble  an  animal,  and  that  the  words  spoken  are  the 
body,  but  the  soul  is  the  invisible  sense  involved  in  the 
words  :  which  it  is  their  religion  itself  which  first  began 
to  exhibit  distinctively,  as  in  a  glass,  putting  the  beautiful 
results  of  the  things  understood  under  the  indecencies  of 
the  names. 

39.  What  need  is  there  to  add  to  these  things,  theif 
meetings  together,  and  their  residences, — the  men  in  one 
place,  and  the  women  in  another  .'' 

40.  And  the  exercises  according  to  the  custom  this  da}' 
continued  among  us,  and  which,  especially  upon  th< 
festival  of  our  Saviour's  passion,  we  have  been  accus 

*  Nota  bene.  t  Nota  bene. 

X  "  Which  things  are  an  allegory." — Gal.  iv.  24. 


CHRISTIAN    SCRIPTURES    ANTERIOR   TO   CHRIST.  73 

tomed  to  observe,  in  fastings,  in  watchings,  and  in  study- 
ing the  divine  discourses  ? 

41.  And  which  are  kept  to  this  day  in  the  same  manner 
only  among  us  :  as  the  same  author  hath  shown  most  mani- 
festly, and  dehvered  in  his  own  writing  ; 

42.  And  especially  relating  the  vigils  of  the  great  fes- 
tival, and  the  exercises  in  them,  and  their  hymns,  which 
are  the  very  same  as  those  used  to  be  said  among  us  ; 

43.  And  how,  as  one  of  them  sang  the  psalm  in  a  pleas- 
ing voice  ;  the  others  leisurely  listening,  took  up  the  last 
stanza  of  the  hymns  ;  and  how,  on  the  afore-named  days, 
lying  on  beds  of  straw  upon  the  ground,  they  would  taste 
no  wine  at  all .-' 

44.  As  he  has  in  so  many  words  written.  Nor  would 
they  eat  any  thing  that  had  blood  in  it  ;*  that  water  only 
is  their  drink  ;  and  hyssop,  bread,  and  salt,  their  food. 

45.  In  addition  to  these  circumstances,  he  describes  the 
orders  of  preferment  among  those  of  them  who  aspire  to 
ecclesiastical  ministrations, — the  offices  of  the  deacons,  the 
humbler  rank,  and  the  supreme  authority  of  their  bishops. f 

46.  Whoever  wishes  a  clear  understanding  of  these  mat- 
ters, may  acquire  it  from  the  afore-mentioned  work  of  this 
author.  "^But  that  Philo  wrote  these  things  with  refer- 
ence to  those  who  were  the  first  preachers  of  the  discipline 
which  is  according  to  the  Gospel,  and  to  the  manners  first 
handed  down  from  the  Apostles,  must  be  manifest  to  every 
man.  "I 

This  conclusion  on  the  whole  matter  is  so  strong,  that 
though  I  am  confident  a  more  faithful  translation  of  the 
whole  cannot  be  made  by  any  man,  I  recommend  a  refer- 
ence to  the  original,  that  the  scholar  may  see  at  once  that 
I  have  taken  no  liberty  with  my  author  ;  and  have  no 
occasion  to  conciliate  his  favour,  or  to  deprecate  his  criti- 
cism. I  offer  him  my  own  translation,  not  on  the  score  of 
its  being  mine,  but  on  the  score  of  its  being  as  good  as  the 
best  that  could  possibly  be  made,  and  better  than  any  that 
is  not  the  best. 

*  For  it  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  us,  to  lay  upon  you  no 
greater  burthen  than  these  necessary  things  :  that  ye  abstain  from  meats  offered  to 

idols,  and  from  blood,  and  from  things  strangled,  and  from ;  from 

which  if  ye  keep  yourselves,  ye  shall  do  well." — Acts  xv.  29. 

t  "  For  they  that  have  used  the  office  of  a  deacon  well,  purchase  to  themselvea 
a  good  degree." — 1  Tim.  iii.  13. 

t  On  Sf  T8?  TT^torec  xtiqvxag  rrjg  xara  to  twayytiiov  di3aaxaitag,rart  uQxi^f* 
TCQof  Ttor  aTToaroKuv  f^vT]  TittQadiSofitra  xaraAa/Jow  o  (piXuv  rmr'tyQcuft,  navri  t» 
dijAov. — Ibid. 

8 


74 


CHAPTER  IX. 

OF    PHILO    AND    HIS    TESTIMONY. 

Of  Philo,  or  as  he  is  commonly  called,  Philo-Judaeus — 
Philo  the  Jew  ;  whom  Eusebius  thus  largely  quotes  ;  it 
becomes  of  supreme  importance  that  we  should  be  able  to 
ascertain  the  age  in  which  he  wrote,  and  who  and  what  he 
was  ;  since  his  treatise  on  "  the  Contemplate  Ufe,''^  or  Monk- 
ery, is  a  demonstration,  than  which  history  could  not  pos- 
sibly have  a  stronger,  that  the  monastic  institution  was  in 
full  reign  at  and  before  his  time. 

Philo-Judffius  was  a  native  of  Alexandria,  of  a  priest's 
family,  and  brother  to  the  Alabarch,  or  chief  Jewish  mag- 
istrate in  that  city.  He  was  sent  at  the  head  of  an  em- 
bassy from  the  Egyptian  Jews,  to  the  Emperor  Caius  Cal- 
igula, A.  D.  39,  and  has  left  an  interesting  recital  of  it,  usu- 
ally printed  in  Josephus.  He  also  wrote  a  defence  of  the 
Jews  against  Flaccus,  then  President  of  Egypt  ;  yet  ex- 
tant. He  was  eminently  versed  in  the  Platonic  philoso- 
phy, of  which  both  his  style  and  his  opinions  partake. — 
His  works  consist  chiefly  of  allegorical  expositions  of  the 
Old  Testament. 

Eusebius  places  his  time  in  the  reign  of  Cais  Claudius, 
the  immediate  successor  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius,  and 
says  of  him,  that  he  was  a  man  not  only  superior  to  the 
most  of  owr  own  religion,  but  by  far  the  most  renowned  of 
all  the  followers  of  profane  knowledge  :*  and  that  he  was 
by  lineal  descent  a  Hebrew,  and  not  inferior  to  any  in 
rank  at  Alexandria  ;  but  by  following  the  platonic  and  Py- 
thagorean philosophy,  he  surpassed  all  the  learned-  men  of 
his  time. 

Eusebius  is  anxious  to  have  it  believed,  that  Philo  was 
in  such  sense  "  one  of  its,"  as  to  have  been  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  a  Christian  :  and  intimates  that  "  it  was  re- 
ported that  Philo  had  met  and  conversed  with  St.  Peter, 
at  Rome,  in  the  reign  of  Claudius."! 

But  alas,  Philo  has  been  insensible,  or  ungrateful,  for 
the   honours   with  which  he   was  so  distinguished,  and 

*  tt>iX(ov  lYvuiQttiro  nXnarot?  ay*iQ  «  ^loiovTior  rifisTiQuy  aXXa  di  rarv  ano  T^( 
i^to^tv  oQfiwiifviav  naiSitag,  tntatifiuruTQo. — Ecc.  Hist.  lib.  2,  c.  4. 

t  Ov  y.ui  f.oyoc:  i)(ti  y.axa  lO.avSiov  tni  Tijf  Fufiiji  «i;  owXiav  tX&nv  UtTQm 
TOif  ixitat  Tore  XTjQvTTovri,  xat  ax  annxog  av  iir;  ruToyt- — Lib.  2    C.  15. 


COROLLARIES.  75 

though  he  has  so  accurately  described  the  discipline  of  a 
religious  community,  of  which  he  was  himself  a  member  : 
1.  Having-  parishes,  2.  Churches,  3.  Bishops,  priests, 
and  deacons  ;  4.  Observing  the  grand  festivals  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  5.  Pretending  to  have  had  apostolic  founders  ; 
6.  Practising  the  very  manners  that  distinguished  the 
immediate  apostles  of  Christ  ;  7.  Using  scriptures  which 
they  believed  to  be  divinely  inspired,  8.  And  which 
Eusebius  himself  believed  to  be  none  other  than  the  sub- 
stance of  our  gospels  ;  9.  And  the  selfsame  allegorical 
method  of  interpreting  those  scriptures,  which  has  since 
obtained  among  Christians  ;  10.  And  the  selfsame  manner 
and  order  of  performing  public  worship  ;  11.  And  having 
missionary  stations  or  colonies — of  their  community  estab- 
lished in  Rome,  Corinth,  Galatia,  Ephesus,  Philippi, 
Colosse,  and  Thessalonica  ;  precisely  such,  and  in  such 
circumstances,  as  those  addressed  by  St.  Paul,  in  his 
respective  epistles  to  the  Romans,  Corinthians,  Galatians, 
Ephesians,  Philippians,  Colossians,  and  Thessalonians  ; 
and  12.  Answering  to  every  circumstance  described  of  the 
state  and  discipline  of  the  first  community  of  Christians, 
to  the  very  letter  ;  13.  And  all  this,  as  nothing  new  in 
Philo's  time,  but  of  then  long-established  notoriety  and 
venerable  antiquity  :  yet  Philo,  who  wrote  before  Jose- 
phus,  and  gave  this  particular  description  of  Egyptian 
monkery,  when  Jesus  Christ,  if  such  a  person  had  ever 
existed,  was  not  above  ten  years  of  age,  and  at  least  fifty 
years,  before  the  existence  of  any  Christian  writing  what- 
ever, has  never  once  thrown  out  the  remotest  hint,  that  he 
had  ever  heard  of  the  existence  of  Christ,  of  Christianity, 
or  of  Christians. 

CHAPTER  X. 

COROLLARIES. 

1.  Should  it  turn  out,  that  the  text  of  Philo,  as  it  may 
have  come  down  to  our  times,  presents  material  dis- 
crepancies from  the  report  which  Eusebius  has  here  made 
of  it  ;  that  discovery  would  bring  no  relief  to  the  cogency 
of  the  demonstration  resulting  from  Eusebius 's  testimony 
merely  ;  because  it  is  with  Eusebius  alone,  that  we  are  in 
this  investigation  concerned  ;  and, 


76  COROLLARIES. 

2.  Because  Christianity  would  be  but  little  the  gainer 
by  overthrowing  the  credebility  of  Eusebius  in  this  instance, 
at  so  dear  an  expence,  as  the  necessary  destruction  of  his 
credibility  in  all  others.  If  we  are  not  to  give  Eusebius 
credit  for  ability  and  integrity,  to  make  a  fair  and  accurate 
quotation,  upon  a  matter  that  could  have  no  room  for  mis- 
take, or  excuse  for  ignorance  ;  if  on  such  a  matter  he 
would  knowingly  and  wilfully  deceive  us ;  and  the  variations 
of  the  text  of  Philo,  from  the  quotations  he  has  given  us, 
be  held  a  sufficient  demonstration  that  he  has  done  so : 
there  remains  no  alternative,  but  that  his  testimony  must 
lose  its  claim  on  our  confidence,  in  all  other  cases  what- 
ever :  with  the  credit  of  Eusebius  must  go,  all  that 
Eusebius's  authority  upheld,  and  the  three  first  ages  of 
Christianity,  will  remain  without  an  historian,  or  but  as 

" A  tale, 

Told  by  an  idiot,  full  of  sound  and  fury. 
Signifying  nothing." 

But  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion  are  not  yet  in 
this  distress. 

The  testimony  of  Eusebius  on  this  subject,  is  neither 
more  nor  less  valid,  for  any  confirmation  or  impeachment 
it  might  receive,  from  any  extant  copies  of  the  writings  of 
Philo. 

3.  Because,  nothing  is  more  likely,  than  that  the  text  of 
Philo,  might  have  been  altered  purposely  to  produce  such 
an  appearance  of  discrepancy,  and  so  to  supply  to  Chris- 
tians, (what  'tis  known  they  would  stop  at  no  means  to 
come  by,)  a  caveat  and  evitation  of  the  most  unguarded 
and  portentous  givi7ig-of-tongue,  that  ever  fell  from  so 
shrewd  and  able  an  historian  ;  and, 

4.  Because,  nothing  is  more  certain,  than  that  no 
writings  have  ever  been  safe  from  such  interpolations  ; 
the  text  of  the  New  Testament  itself,  at  this  day,  pre- 
senting us  with  innumerable  texts,  which  were  not  con- 
tained in  its  earlier  copies,  and  being  found  deficient  of 
many  texts  that  were  in  those  copies.* 

5.  We  have  certainly  Eusebius's  testimony  in  this 
chapter,  and  in  such  a  state  as  that  it  may  be  depended 
on,  as  being  bona  fide  his  testimony,  really  and  fairly 
exhibiting  to  us,  what  his  view  and  judgment  of  Chris- 
tianity was,  or — (the  Christian  is  welcome  to  the  alter- 
native !) 

*  See  Chapter  16. 


COROLLARIES.  77 

6.  And  Eusebius's  testimony  is  valid  to  the  full  effect 
for  which  Ave  claim  it,  and  that  is,  to  the  proof  of  what  the 
origin  of  the  Christian  scriptures  was,  as  it  appeared  to 

HIM. 

7.  And  the  validity  of  his  testimony  cannot  be  im- 
peached in  this  particular  instance,  without  overthrowing 
the  authority  of  evidence  altogether,  opening  the  door  to 
everlasting  quibbling,  turning  history  into  romance,  and 
making  the  admission  of  facts  to  depend  on  the  caprice  or 
prejudice  of  a  party.* 

8.  And  if  whatEusebius  has  delivered  in  this  chapter, 
cannot  be  reconciled  to  what  he  may  seem  to  have  de- 
livered in  other  parts  of  his  writings,  it  will  be  for  those 
who  refuse  to  receive  his  testimony,  here,  to  show  how,  or 
where  he  ever  hath,  or  could  have,  delivered  a  contrary 
testimony  more  explicitly,  intelligibly,  and  positively,  than 
he  has  this. 

9.  Nor  can  they  claim  from  us,  that  we  should  respect 
his  testimony  in  any  other  case,  when  they  themselves 
refuse  to  respect  it,  where  it  stands  in  conflict  with  their 
own  foregone  conclusion. 

10.  And  if,  what  he  may  any  where  else  have  said,  be 
found  utterly  irreconcileable  with  what  he  hath  here 
delivered,  so  as  to  convict  him  of  being  an  author  who 
cared  not  what  he  said;  the  Christian  again  is  welcome  to 
the  conclusion  on  which  his  own  argument  will  drive 
him,  i.  e.  the  total  destruction  of  all  evidence  that  rests  on 
the  veracity  of  Eusebius. 

1 1 .  And  if  Eusebius  be  not  competent  testimony  to  what 
Christianity  was  in  his  day,  as  it  appeared  to  him  ;  we  hold 
ourselves  in  readiness  to  receive  and  respect  any  other 
testimony  of  the  same  age,  which  those  who  shall  bring 
it  forward,  shall  be  able  to  show  to  be  superior  to  that  of 
Eusebius. 

12.  But  the  conflict  itself,  which  this  mast  important 
passage  has  excited  in  the  learned  world,  has  thoroughly 
winnowed  it  from  all  the  chaff"  of  sophistication,  and  in 
the  admissions  of  those  who  have  contended  most  stre- 
nuously against  its  pregnant  consequences  ;  we  possess  the 
strongest  species  of  evidence  of  which  any  historical  doc- 
ument whatever,  is  capable. 

*  In  these  Corollaries,  be  it  observed,  we  respect  the  wide  distinction  between 
his  testimony  to  miracles  ;  in  which  he  speaks  as  a  divine,  from  whom  therefore 
truth  is  not  to  be  too  rigidly  expected  ;  and  his  testimony  as  an  historian,  frona 
whom  nothing  but  truth  is  to  be  endured. 

^  8* 


78  COROLLARIES. 

13.  The  learned  Basnage*  has  been  at  the  pains  of  ex- 
amining with  the  most  critical  accuracy,  the  curious  trea- 
tise of  Philo,  on  which  our  Eusebius  builds  his  argument, 
that  the  ancient  sect  of  the  Therapeutse  were  really 
Christians  so  many  centuries  before  Christ,  and  were 
actually  in  possession  of  those  very  writings  which  have 
become  our  gospels  and  epistles. 

14.  Gibbon,  with  that  matchless  power  of  sarcasm, 
which,  in  so  little  said,  conveys  so  much  intended,  and 
which  carries  instruction  and  conviction  to  the  mind,  by 
making  what  is  said,  knock  at  the  door  to  ask  admission 
for  what  is  not  said,f  significantly  tells  us  that,  "  by  prov- 
ing that  this  treatise  of  Philo  was  composed  as  early  as 
the  time  of  Augustus,  Basnage  has  demonstrated,  in  spite 
of  Eusebius,  and  a  crowd  of  modern  Catholics,  that  the 
Therapeutse  were  neither  Christians  nor  monks.  It  still 
remains  probable,  (adds  the  historian),  that  they  changed 
their  name,  preserved  their  manners,  adopted  some  new 
articles  of  faith,  and  gradually  became  the  fathers  of  the 
Egyptian  Ascetics." — Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
chap.  15,  note. 

15.  Under  the  overt  sense  of  this  important  criticism, 
the  sagacious  historian  protects  his  call  on  our  observance 
of  the  monstrous  absurdity  of  a  modern  theologian  at- 
tempting to  demonstrate  what  primitive  Christianity  was, 
in  spite  of  the  only  authority  from  which  our  knowledge 
of  primitive  Christianity  can  be  derived,  and  challenging 
our  surrender  to  his  peculiar  view  of  the  subject,  in  pre- 
ference to  the  conclusions  of  a  crowd  of  modern  Catholics, 
who  are  certainly  as  likely  to  know,  and  as  able  to  judge, 
as  himself. 

16.  Nor  are  we  to  overlook  the  palpable  inference,  that 
a  demonstration  that  this  treatise  of  Philo  was  written  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Augustus  ;  so  far  from  demonstrating 
the  conclusion  which  the  demonstrator  aims  to  establish, 
demonstrates  all  the  premises  and  grounds  of  the  very 
opposite  conclusion. 

*  Basnage,  Histoire  des  Juifa.  1.  2,  c.  20,  et  seq. 

t  Could  any  jibe  be  keener  than  liis  remark  on  the  convenience  of  the  time  fixed 
on  by  divine  providence,  for  the  introduction  of  Christianity  ;  when  the  Pagan  phi- 
losophers, and  the  Pagans  generally,  were  become  quite  indifferent  to  the  old  forma 
of  idolatry  : — "  Some  deities  of  a  more  recent  and  fashionable  cast,  might  soon 
have  occupied  the  deserted  temples  of  Jupiter  and  Apollo,  if  in  the  decisive  mo- 
ment, the  wisdom  of  providence  had  not  interposed  a  genuine  revelation." — Chap. 
15.  How  honest  must  the  Pagan  priests  have  been,  to  have  owned  that  their  rev- 
elations were  not  genuine  ! 


COROLLARIES.  79 

17.  The  apology  for  this  dilemma,  so  sarcastically  sug- 
gested by  Gibbon,  that  "it  is  probable  that  these  fhera- 
peutse  changed  their  name,"  conveys  the  real  truth  of  the 
matter,  in  the  equally  suggested  probability,  that  their 
name  was  changed  for  them"  It  was  not  they  who  embraced 
Christianity,  but  Christianity  that  embraced  them. 

18.  We  know  that  those  most  admired  compositions  of 
Shakspeare  and  Otway,  the  "Hamlet"  and  "Venice 
Preserved,"  as  now  presented  to  the  public,  are  but  little 
like  the  first  draughts  of  them,  as  they  fell  from  the  pen  of 
those  great  authors  ;  yet  no  one  doubts  their  proper 
origination,  nor  thinks  of  ascribing  the  merit  of  them  to 
any  other  than  those  authors,  though  they  be  re-edited 
with  thousands  of  various  readings,  and  we  are  now 
content  to  recognise  as  the  best  copies,  the  "  Hamlet" 
according  to  Mai  one  or  Garrick,  and  the  "  Venice  Pre- 
served" according  to  Colley  Cibber. 

19.  Considering  the  remote  antiquity  in  which  all 
evidence  on  the  subject  must- necessarily  be  obscured.  So 
positive  and  distinct  an  avowal  as  this,  of  the  very  highest 
authority  that  could  possibly  be,  or  be  pretended,  that  the 
gospels  and  epistles  of  the  New  Testament,  constituted 
the  sacred  writings  of  the  ancient  sect  of  the  Therapeutas, 
before  the  era  which  modern  Christians  have  unluckily 
assigned  as  that  of  the  birth  of  Christ  ;  supported  as  that 
avowal  is,  by  internal  evidence  and  demonstrations  of 
those  scriptures  themselves,  even  in  the  state  in  which 
they  have  come  down  to  us,  and  explaining  and  account- 
ing as  that  avowal  does,  for  all  the  circumstances  and 
phEBUomena  that  have  attended  those  scriptures,  which 
no  other  hypothesis  can  explain  or  account  for,  without 
calling  in  the  desperate  madness  of  supposing  the  ope- 
ration of  supernatural  causes  : — we  hold  ourselves  tq 
have  presented  a  demonstration  of  certainty,  than  which 
history  hath  nothing  more  certain — that  the  writings  con- 
tained in  the  New  Testament,  are  hereby  clearly  traced 
up  to  the  Therapeutan  monks  before  the  Augustan  age  ; 
and  that  no  ancient,  or  equally  ancient  work,  was  ever  by 
more  satisfactory  evidence,  shown  to  have  been  the  com- 
position of  the  author  to^whom  it  has  been  ascribed,  than 
that  by  which  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament  are 
proved  to  have  been  the  works  of  those  monks. 

^  20.  To  be  sure  they  have  been  re-edited  from  time  to 
time,  and  all  convenient  alterations  and  substitutions 
made  upon  them,  "  to  accommodate  them  to  the  faith  of  the 


80  COROLLARIES. 

orthodox.''^*  Some  entire  scenes  of  the  drama  have  been 
rejected,  and  some  suggested  emendations  of  early  critics 
have  been  adopted  into  the  text ;  the  names  of  Pontius 
Pilate,  Herod,  Archelaus,  Caiaphas,  &c.  picked  out  of 
Josephus's  and  other  histories,  have  been  substituted  in 
the  place  of  the  original  dramatis  personce :  and  since  it 
has  been  found  expedient  to  conceal  the  plagiarism,  to 
pretend  a  later  date,  and  a  wholly  different  origination, 
texts  have  been  introduced,  directly  impugning  the  known 
sentiments  and  opinions  of  the  original  authors  :  by  an 
exquisite  shuffle  of  ecclesiastical  management,  Avhat  was 
really  the  origination  of  Christianity,  has  been  represented 
as  a  corruption  of  it.  The  epocha  and  reign  of  monkish 
influence  and  monkish  principles,  has  been  'wilfully  mis- 
dated ;  those  who  are  known,  and  demonstrated  by  the 
clearest  evidence  of  independent  history,  to  have  existed 
for  ages  before  the  Christian  era,  are  represented  to  have 
sprung  up,  in  the  second,  third,  or  fourth  century  of  that 
era  ;  and  in  spite  of  the  still  remaining  awkwardness  and 
hideousness  of  the  dilemma,  that  so  pure  and  holy  a 
religion,  should  come  so  soon  to  have  been  so  universally 
misunderstood  ;  the  monks  who  originated,  are  branded 
as  the  monks  who  corrupted  ;  the  makers  for  the  marrers  : 
and  it  has  remained  for  Protestant  illumination,  after 
sixteen  hundred  years  of  dark  ages,  to  discover  evidence 
that  escaped  the  observance  of  the  very  authorities  from 
which  it  is  derived,  and  to  show  us  divine  inspiration,  and 
more  than  human  means  for  the  exaltation  and  improve- 
ment of  the  human  character,  in  the  hands  of  monks  and 
solitaires,  eremites  and  friars. 

21.  We  have  here  the  clearest  and  most  complete 
solution  of  the  difficulty  that  seems  to  have  so  much  per- 
plexed the  faith  of  the  Unitarian  Christian,  Evanson,  in 
his  Dissonance  of  the  Four   Gospels  ;f  namely — that   though 

*  See  Manifesto  of  the  Christian  Evidence  Society. 

t  This  very  ingenious  and  interesting  work,  as  pubhshed  by  one  who  was  a 
preacher  in  the  Unitarian  connection,  and  who  professes  himself  to  be  a  disciple 
of  Jesus  Christ,  is  another,  added  to  the  many  instances  we  meet  with,  of  the 
correct  and  even  powerful  acting  of  the  n)ind,  in  most  able  criticism,  in  deep  re- 
search, and  shrewd  discernment,  while  yet  labouring  under  an  insanity,  with 
respect  to  some  particular  modifications  of  thought,  so  egregious  as  to  betray  itself 
even  to  the  observance  of  a  child.  Mr.  Evanson  rejected  the  gospels  of  Matthew, 
Mark,  and  John,  and  very  many  parts  of  t^t.  Luke  ;  he  rejected  the  Epistles 
to  the  Romans,  to  the  Ephesians,  to  the  Philippians,  to  Titus,  and  the  Hebrews, 
the  two  Epistles  of  Peter,  the  three  of  John,  and  the  Revelations  ;  each  of  which 
he  convicts  of  evident  interpolation,  and  strong  marks  of  forgery  ;  yet,  he 
believed  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and  "  in  all  the  obvious  and  simple, 
but  important  truths,  of  the  new  covenant  ofthe  gospel," — Page  289,  (the  last.) 


*^-*' 


COROLLARIES.  81 

they  are  to  be  received  as  the  composition  of  Jews,  cotem- 
poraries,  and  even  witnesses  of  the  scenes  and  actions 
they  describe  ;  those  compositions  do  nevertheless  betray 
so  great  a  degree  of  ignorance  of  the  geography,  statistics, 
and  circumstances  of  Judea  at  the  time  supposed,  as  to 
put  it  beyond  all  question,  that  the  writers  were  neither 
witnesses  nor  cotemporaries — neither  Jews,  nor  at  any 
time  inhabitants  of  Judea.  This,  the  learned  Dr.  Bret- 
schneider'*'  has  demonstrated  with  respect  to  St.  John  in 
particular,  most  convincingly,  in  his  admirable  work, 
modestly  entitled,  ProbabUia  de  Evangelii  Johannis  indole  et 
origine  ;  in  which  he  points  out  such  mistakes  and  errors 
of  the  geography,  chronology,  history,  and  statistics  of 
Judea,  as  no  person  who  had  ever  resided  in  that  country, 
or  had  been  by  birth  a  Jew,  could  possibly  have  com- 
mitted. 

22.  The  Therapeutse,  we  see,  though  not  Jews,  nor 
inhabitants  of  Palestine,  were,  says  Eusebius,  "it  is  likely, 
descended  from  Hebrews,  and  therefore  were  wont  to  observe 
very  many  of  the  customs  of  the  ancients,  after  a  more 
Jewish  fashion."  Now,  as  those  customs  of  the  ancients 
could  have  been  none  other  than  ancient  Pagan  customs, 
their  hereditary  respect  for  every  thing  Jewish,  accounts 
for  their  observing  those  ancient  customs  "  after  a  more 
Jewish  fashion,''''  and  for  the  Jewish  complexion  which  the 
ancient  Oriental  or  Grecian  mythology  would  be  made  to 
wear,  after  passing  through  their  hands. 

23.  This  account  of  the  matter  is  the  more  confirmed, 
from  the  entirely  incidental  and  undesigned  character  of 
the  admission,  as  it  appears  in  Eusebius,  who  lets  it  fall, 
without  the  least  observance  of.  the  argument  with  which 
it  teems,  and  without  any  intention  of  subserving  the  uses 
that  that  argument  will  supply  ;  and  still  further,  by  the 
known  character  of  the  Jews  themselves,  who  have  in- 
troduced the  stories  of  the  Pagan  heroes,  disguised  in  a 
Jewish  garb,  into  their  Old  Testament,  turning  Ipthigenia 
into  Jeptha's  daughter,  Hercules  into  Sampson,  Devicalion 
into  Noah,  and  Arion  on  the  dolphin's  back,  into  Jonah,in 
the  whale's  belly  ;  &c.  &c. 

^4.    "  The   extensive    commerce  of  Alexandria,  (says 

*  Bretschneider's  work  has  been  answered,  but  very  ridiculously,  by  the  learned 
professor  Stein,  of  Brandenburgh,  in  a  work  entitled,  Authentia  Evangelh 
Johannis  Vindieata,  in  which  Stein  throws  himself  on  the  unanswerable  argu- 
ment, of  having  felt  that  gospel  so  particularly  comfortable  to  his  soul  ;  as  a  proof 
of  its  genuineness. 


HZ  COROLLARIES. 

Gibbon,)  and  its  proximity  to  Palestine,  gave  an  easy 
entrance  to  the  new  religion.  It  was,  at  first,*  embraced 
by  great  numbers  of  the  Therapeuta?,  or  Essenians,  of  the 
lake  Mareotis,  a  Jewish  sect  which  had  abated  much  of 
its  reverence  for  the  Mosaic  ceremonies.  The  austere 
life  of  the  Essenians,  their  feasts  and  excommunications, 
the  community  of  goods,  their  love  of  celibacy,  their  zeal 
for  martyrdom,  and  the  warmth,  though  not  the  purity  of 
their  faith,  already  offered  a  very  lively  image  of  the 
primitive  discipline.  It  was  in  the  school  of  Alexandria, 
that  the  Christian  theology  appears  to  have  assumed  a 
regular  and  scientifical  form  ;  and  when  Hadrian  visited 
Egypt,  he  found  a  church  composed  of  Jews  and  Greeks, 
sufficiently  important  to  attract  the  notice  of  that  inqui- 
sitive prince." — Gibbon,  chap.  15. 

The  progress  of  Christianity  was  for  a  long  time  con- 
fined within  the  limits  of  this  single  city  (of  Alexandria)  ; 
and  so  slow  was  the  progress  of  this  religion,  that  not- 
withstanding the  rhetorical  flourishes  and  hyperbolical 
exaggerations  of  the  Fathers,  "  we  are  possessed  of  an 
authentic  record,  which  attests  the  state  of  religion  in 
the  first  and  most  populous  city  of  the  then  known  world. 
In  Rome — about  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  and  after 
a  peace  of  thirty-eight  years  ;  the  clergy  consisted  but  of 
one  bishop,  forty-six  presbyters,  fourteen  deacons,  forty-two 
acolythes,  and  fifty  readers,  exorcists  and  porters.  We 
may  venture,  (concludes  the  great  historian)  to  estimate 
the  Christians  at  Rome,  at  about  fifty  thousand,  when  the 
total  number  of  inhabitants  cannot  be  taken  at  less  than 
a  million ;  and  of  the  whole  Roman  Empire,  the  most 
favourable  calculation  that  can  be  deduced  from  the 
examples  of  Antioch  and  of  Rome,  will  not  permit  us  to 
imagine  that  more  than  a  twentieth  part  of  the  subjects  of 
the  Empire  had  ienlisted  themselves  under  the  banner  of 
the  cross,  before  the  important  conversion  of  the  Emperor 
Constantine." — Ibid. 

25.  It  should  never  be  forgotten,  that  miraculously 
rapid  as  we  are  sometimes  told  the  propagation  of  the 
gospel  was,  it  was  first  preached  in  England  by  Austin, 
the  monk,  under  commission  from  Pope  Gregory,  towards 
the  end  of  the  seventh  century.  So  that  the  good  neics  of 
salvation,  in  travelling  from  the  supposed  scene  of  action 

*  Yes,  at  first .'  at  first  !•  Before  the  disciples  were  called  Christians  at  Antioch 
^before  the  name  of  Jesus  of  JVazareth  had  been  heard  of  at  Jerusalem. 


COROLLARIES.  83 

to  this  favoured  country,   may  be   calculated  as  having 
posted  at  the  rate  of  almost  an  inch  in  a  fortnight. 

26.  This  however,  when  compared  with  the  rate  at  which 
the  evidence  of  any  beneficial  effects  of  the  religion  upon 
the  morals  of  its  professors  hath  advanced,  may  be  ad- 
mitted to  be  surprising  velocity  ;  for  certain  it  is,  that  not 
the  most  distant  hearsay  of  such  effects,  had  reached  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench,  Westminster,  so  late  as  the  7th  of 
February,  1828. 

27.  Here  then  have  we,  in  the  cities  of  Egypt,  and  in 
the  deserts  of  Thebais,  the  whole  already  established 
system  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  its  hierarchy  of  bishops, 
its  subordinate  clergy,  the  selfsame  sacred  scriptures,  the 
selfsame  allegorical  method  of  interpreting  those  scrip- 
tures, so  convenient  to  admit  of  the  evasion  or  amend- 
ment from  time  to  time,  of  any  defects  that  criticism  might 
discover  in  them  ;  the  same  doctrines,  rites,  ceremonies, 
festivals,  disciphne,  psalms,  repeated  in  alternate  verses 
by  the  minister  and  the  congregation,  epistles  and  gospels 
— in  a  word,  the  every-tliing,  and  every  iota  of  Christianity, 
previously  existing  from  time  immemorial,  and  certainly 
known  to  have  been  in  existence,  and  as  such,  recorded 
and  detailed  by  an  historian  of  unquestioned  veracity, 
living  and  writing  at  least  fifty  years  before  the  earliest 
date  that  Christian  historians  have  assigned  to  any  Chris- 
tian document  whatever. 

28.  Here  we  see  through  the  thin  veil  that  would  hide 
the  truth  from  our  eyes,  in  the  admissions  that  Christians 
have  been  constrained  to  make,  that  the  TherapeutsB  were 
certainly  the  first  converts  to  the  faith  of  Christ  ;  and  that 
the  many  circumstances  of  doctrine  and  discipline,  that 
they  had  in  common  with  the  Christians,  had  previously 
prepared  and  predisposed  them  to  receive  the  gospel. 
We  find  that  the  faith  of  Christ  actually  originated  with 
them,  that  they  were  in  previous  possession,  and  that 
those  who,  by  a  chronological  error,  or  wilful  misrepre- 
sentation, are  called  the  first  Christians,  were  not  the 
converters  of  the  TherapeutaB,  but  were  themselves  their 
converts. 

29.  This  accounts  for  a  phenomenon  that  every  where 
meets  us,  and  which  were  otherwise  utterly  unaccount- 
able ;  that  the  religion  of  one  who  had  expressly  ad- 
monished his  disciples,  that  his  kingdom,  was  not  of  this 
world,  and  which  purports  to  have  been  first  preached  by 
unambitious  and  illiterate  fishermen,  should  in  the  very 


84  COROLLARIES. 

first  and  earliest  documents  of  it  that  can  be  produced, 
present  us  with  all  the  full  ripe  arrogance  of  an  already 
established  hierarchy  ;  bishops  disputing  for  their  pre- 
rogatives, and  throne-enseated  prelates  demanding  and 
receiving  more  than  the  honours  of  temporal  sovereignty, 
from  their  cringing  vassals,  and  denouncing  worse  than 
inflictions  of  temporal  punishment  against  the  heretics 
who  should  presume  to  resist  their  decrees,  or  dispute 
their  authority. 

30.  We  find  the  episcopal  form  of  government,  even 
before  the  end  of  the  first  century,  fully  established  ;  and 
if  not  the  very  Galilean  fishermen  themselves,  at  least 
those  who  are  called  the  apostolic  fathers^  and  who  are 
supposed  to  have  received  their  authority  and  doctrine 
immediately  from  them,  established  in  all  the  pride,  pomp, 
and  magnificence  of  sovereign  pontiffs,  and  lords  of  the 
lives  and  fortunes,*  as  well  as  of  the  faith  of  their  flocks  ; 
and  every  where  inculcating,  as  the  first  axiom  of  all 
morality  and  virtue,  that  there  was  no  sin  so  great,  as  that 
of  resistance  to  the  authority  of  a  bishop. 

31.  "  Since  the  time  of  Tertullian  and  Irenseus,  it  has 
been  a  fact,  as  well  as  a  maxim,  JWilla  ecclesia  sine  episcopo 
— no  church  without  a  bishop." — Gibbon. 

32.  We  find  Ignatius,  Bishop  of  Antioch,  even  while 
the  Apostles,  or  John,  at  least,  is  supposed  to  have  been 
living,  venturing  to  stake  his  soul  for  theirs,  and  himself 
the  expiatory  oftering,  for  those  who  should  duly  obey  their 
bishop  ;  and, 

32.  Dionysius,  Bishop  of  Alexandria  the  very  seat  and 
centre  of  the  Therapeutan  doctrine,  in  his  epistles  to 
Novatius,  maintains  that  schismatics,  or  those  who  should 
venture  to  follow  any  opinions  unsanctioned  by  the 
bishop,  were  "  renegadoes,  apostates,  malignants,  par- 
ricides, anti-christs,  blasphemers,  the  devil's  priests, 
villainous,  and  perfidious,  were  without  hope,  had  no  right 
to  the  promises,  could  not  be  saved,  were,  no  more  Chris- 
tians than  the  devil,  could  not  go  to  heaven,  the  hottest 
part  of  hell  their  portion,  their  preaching  poisonous, 
their   baptism   pestiferous,    their   persons    accursed,  &c. 

*  St.  Peter  put  Ananias  and  Sapphira  to*death,  for  not  giving  him  all  the 
money  he  wanted. — Acts  v.  St.  Paul  ordered  the  Corinthian  "  to  be  delivered  to 
Satan  for  the  destruction  of  his  flesh,  for  having  overlooked  the  rules  of  the 
Therapeutan  college,  in  a  love  affair." — 1  Corinth,  v.  The  power  of  the  church 
could  never  have  been  more  fully  established  than  when  such  outrageous  injustice 
was  above  all  responsibility. 


COROLLARIES.  "  85 

&c.,   and  much  more,  to   the   same   heavenly-tempered 
purport."* 

34.  Such  a  state  of  thingfs,  such  sentiments  and  lan- 
guage, and  the  like  thereof,  invariably  found  as  it  is  in 
the  very  earliest  documents  of  Christianity  that  can  be 
adduced,  and  attested  by  the  corroboration  of  independent 
historical  evidence,  is  utterly  incongruous,  wholly  irre- 
concileable  and  out  of  keeping  with  any  possibility  of  the 
existence  of  the  circumstances  under  which-  the  Christian 
revelation  is  generally  supposed  to  have  made  its  appear- 
ance on  earth. 

35.  But  it  is  in  perfect  probability  and  in  entire  coin- 
cidence with  all  the  circumstances  discovered  to  us  by 
this  wonderful  passage  of  Eusebius,  from  whom  we  learn 
that  the  Evangelist,  St.  Mark,  was  believed  to  have  been 
the  first  who  extended  his  travels  into  Egypt,  and  became 
the  founder  of  this  same  Therapeutan  church,  in  the  city  of 
Alexandria,  by  preaching  in  the  first  instance  to  them,  the 
gospel  which  has  come  down  to  us  under  his  name.f    . 

36.  Even  the  necessary  decency  of  supposing  that  at 
least  one  of  the  Evangelists  should  have  written  a  gospel 
in  the  language  of  his  own  country,  has  been  given  up, 
with  the  pitiful  apology,  that  the  invincible  unbelief  of  the 
Hebrew  nation,  rendered  the  gospel  which  St.  Matthew 
may  be  supposed  to  have  written  in  Hebrew,  not  worth  pre- 
serving.   So  that  no  gospel,  in  the  language  of  the  country 

*  Quoted  in  the  Principles  of  the  Cyprianic  Age,  p.  19.  A  very  rare  and 
curious  work  (by  J.  S.  that  is,  John  Sage,  a  Scottish  bishop,  1695,)  preserved  in 
Sion  College  library,  from  whence  lent  to  my  use,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gaskin,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge. 

t  But  what  if  Mark  himself,  as  well  as  his  colleagues,  were  really  no  Jews  at  all, 
but  native  Egyptians,  and  bishops  of  this  pre-existent  Therapeutan  church  ;  the 
words  of  Eusebius  may  present  a  different  sense  to  the  eye  of  faith,  they  admit  of 
no  other  rational  understanding. 

Thtov  Se  iiuoy.or  tiqwtov  (paaiv  tni  Trig  (tiyvTcm  arnlautvov  to  tvayysAiov  o  6ii  xat 
Cvviy(}a-(paTO,  y.rjQv^ut,  iy.y.'Ar^aiug  Tt  tcqwtov  sn'  avTtjg  A?.i^avdQstug  avarrjaaaSat, 
roPavTyj  d'  aqa  Tojr  avTo&i  TitniaTtvxoTiov  nXrid-vc  ardqwr  th  xai  yvraixiav  ex  nQurrrjs 
sTTi^'ioXij;  avrtOTi]  di  acyxtjdewg  ipi?.oao(pwTaTr]g  Tt  xai  ciipoSooTaTtjg,  uig  xcti  yQatpijg 
uvt"  (Xziwc.ai  Tag  diar^tliug,  xai  rag  avrj}Xvaeig  tu  ti  avftnooiu  xai  Tuaav  T?/r  aiAjjv 
Ts  pia  ayvr/Tjr  tov  (pikwra — i.  e.  "  But  this  Mark,  they  say,  first  betook  himr- 
self  into  Egypt,  and  preached  the  gospel,  that  which  he  also  wrote,  and 
first  established  the  chvrches  of  Alexandria  ;  and  such  a  inultitude,  both 
of  men  and  women,  loere  assembled  upon  his  first  attempt,  on  account  of 
his  more  philosophical  and  severe  asceticism,  that  Philo  held  it  worthy  to 
commit  to  writing  an  account  'of  their  exercises  and  assemblies,  their 
meals,  and  their  whole  discipline  of  life.''  Such  is  the  whole  of  the  15th 
chapter  of  the  second  book  of  Eusebius's  Ecclesiastical  History,  discovering  to  us, 
the  now  demonstrated  and  indisputable  fact,  that  monkery  or  asceticism,  was  the 
first  and  earliest  type  of  Christianity  ;  that  its  first  preachers  were  monks  ;  and 
that  not  only  the  doctrines,  but  that  the  gospels  which  contain  them,  were  alreadj 
extant  in  the  world,  many  years  before  the  epocha  assigned  to  the  birth  of  ('hrist. 

9 


86  CORROBORATIONS. 

in  which  its  stupendous  events  are  said  to  have  happened, 
can  be  shown  to  have  been  ever  in  existence. 

We  should  naturally  think,  that  any  thing  rather  than  an 
account  of  events  that  had  really  happened,  must  have 
been  intended  by  English  authors,  who  chose  to  write  the 
history  of  England,  in  any  other  language  than  English. 
But  the  conduct  of  the  Evangelists  is  still  more  unaccount- 
able, in  that  they  must  have  gone  so  much  out  of  their 
way,  to  deprive  their  countrymen  of  the  knowledge  of 
salvation,  to  write  in  a  language,  that  'tis  certain  they 
could  never  have  understood  themselves,  without  divine 
inspiration.  Are  we  to  suppose  that  persons  of  their  mean 
and  humble  rank,  in  the  most  barbarous  province  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  were  better  educated  than  persons  of  the 
same  calling  at  this  day  in  any  country  in  Christendom, 
and  that  the  fishermen  of  the  Galilean  lake,  could  handle 
the  pen  of  the  ready  writer,  in  an  age,  ages  before  the  age, 
in  which,  as  yet,  even  prelates,  priests,  and  princes,  were 
marksmen,  and  comprehended  their  whole  extent  of  litera- 
ture, in  the  sign  of  the  X. 


CHAPTER  XL 

CORROBORATIONS  OF  THE  EVIDENCE  ARISING  FROM  THE 
ADMISSIONS  OF  EUSEBIUS,  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 
ITSELF. 

In  order  to  enable  the  reader  to  see  and  apply  the  force 
of  these  admissions  and  their  corollaries,  and  for  the 
innumerable  necessities  of  reference  throughout  this 
DiEGEsis,  I  have  presented  him  with  the  best  account  of 
the  times  and  places  usually  assigned  as  those  of  the  first 
publication  of  the  several  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
on  the  very  highest  authority  that  Christians  themselves 
can  affect  to  refer  to  on  this  subject,  which  he  will  find  in 
the  chapter  of  Tables. 

1 .  Upon  referring  to  this,  it  will  be  seen,  that  the  high- 
est authorities  admit,  that  all  of  the  epistles  were  written 
some  considerable  time  before  any  of  the  four  gospels  ; 
and  as  a  necessary  consequence  it  follows,  that  they  must 
have  been  written  at  a  still  more  considerable  length  of 
time,  before  any  one  of  those  gospels  could  have  come  into 
general  use  and  notoriety. 

2.  Nor  must  we  forget,  that  from  the  very  nature  of 
epistolary  writing,  the  information  contained  in  letters, 


CORROBORATIONS.  87 

that  would  necessarily  be  put  in  the  channel  of  conveyance 
to  the  persons  to  whom  they  were  addressed,  immediately 
upon  being  written,  must  as  necessarily  outrun  the  slow 
gradual  and  uncertain  arrival  of  information  conveyed  in 
general  treatises,  which  were  no  more  one  man's  business 
than  another's,  and  which  might  remain  unknown  to  the 
majority  of  Christians,  even  on  the  very  site  of  their  most 
extended  publication. 

3.  Add  too,  the  equally  essential  calculation  of  the  effect 
of  distance  of  places,  in  those  remote  ages,  when  our  arts 
and  means  of  conveyance  were  utterly  unknown,  which 
would  necessarily  render  a  published  narration  of  events 
that  had  occurred  in  a  distant  province,  of  infinitely 
tardier  authentication,  than  any  epistles  sent  by  hand,  as 
those  of  the  New  Testament  purport  to  be,  and  only  pass- 
ing to  and  from  the  comparatively  neighbouring  cities  of 
Corinth,  Ephesus,  and  Thessalonica. 

4.  Upon  the  admitted  fact,  that  the  most  important  of 
these  epistles,  (say,  that  to  the  Galatians)  was  written 
eleven  or  twelve  years  before  the  earliest  date  of  any  one 
of  our  gospels,  we  may  fairly  put  in  challenge,  that  that, 
or  any  other  of  the  epistles,  must  have  been  received, 
read,  and  known,  even  many  years,  before  the  credit  of 
the  gospels  was  established. 

5.  These  admissions  seem  to  have  been  yielded,  with 
however  ill  a  grace,  by  theologians,  on  account  of  the 
manifestly  greater  difficulties,  that  would  attend  the  ad- 
mission of  the  opposite  hypothesis  ;  to  wit,  that,  of  the 
prior  existence  and  prevalence  of  the  gospels ;  which  would 
palpably  throw  the  language  and  style  of  these  epistles  in 
reference  to  those  gospels,  sheer  out  of  the  latitude  of  all 
possibility  of  being  received  as  the  compositions  of  the 
cotemporaries  of  the  Evangelists. 

6.  Nor  is  there  more  than  one  single  passage  in  the 
whole  of  these  epistles,  that  so  much  as  appears  to  con- 
flict with  this  arrangement  ;  and  as  that  is  a  verbal  coinci- 
dence merely,  it  can  hardly  be  held  sufficient  to  over- 
throw the  universal  consent  supported  by  the  manifest 
sense  and  character  of  every  other  chapter  and  verse  of 
those  epistles. 

That  passage  is  1  Cor.  xi.  24,  25,  referring  to  the  insti- 
tution of  the  sacrament,  in  which  the  Apostle  says,  "  / 
have  received  of  the  Lord  that  xohich  also  I  delivered  unto  you, 
that  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  same  night  in  which  he  ivas  betrayed, 
took  bread,  and  when  he  had  given  thanks,  he  brake  it,  and  said, 
Take,  eat,  this  is  my  body,  which  is  broken  for  you  :  this  do  in 


88  CORROBORATIONS. 

remembrance  of  me.  After  the  same  manner  abo,  he  took  the 
cup,  when  he  had  supped,  saying,  This  cup  is  the  JVetc  Testa- 
ment in  my  blood  :  this  do,  as  oft  as  ye  drink  it,  in  remem- 
brance of  me. 

This  passage,  indeed,  has  the  appearance  of  being-  a 
direct  quotation  from  the  text  of  Luke's  gospel,  xxii. 
verses  19,  20.  "  Jlnd  he  took  bread,  and  gave  'thanks,  and 
brake  it,  and  gave  unto  them,  saying.  This  is  my  body,  which  is 
given  for  you  :  this  do  in  remembrance  of  me.  Likewise  also  the 
cup,  after  supper,  saying.  This  cup  is  the  J^ew  Testament  in  my 
blood,  lohich  is  shed  for  you.'''' 

If  there  were  no  relieving  alternative,  but  that  the 
former  of  these  passages  must  be  acknowledged  to  be 
a  quotation  from  the  latter,  as  certainly  no  work  could  be 
quoted  before  it  existed  ;  the  arrangement,  which  it  will 
be  seen  by  Dr.  Lardner's  table,  makes  the  Epistle  to  have 
been  written  at  least  six  years  before  the  Gospel,  is  con- 
victed of  anachronism  ;  and  as  far  as  this  evidence  is  con- 
cerned, divines  are  thrown  again  upon  the  stakes  of  all 
the  difficulties  that  attend  the  hypothesis  they  have  been 
at  such  pains  to  evade. 

1 .  But  the  evidently  mystical  sense  of  the  words  them- 
selves. 

2.  The  distinct  declaration  of  the  apostle  in  this  place, 
that  he  had  received  what  he  delivered /rom  the  Lord  ; 

3.  And  in  other  places  (Gal.  i.  11),  that  "  the  gospel  which 
he  preached  loas  not  after  man  ;  for  he  neither  received  it  of  man, 
neither  was  he  taught  it,  but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ ; 

4.  The  most  striking  resemblance  and  coincidence  of 
these  words  with  the  formularies  and  ritual  of  the  Pagan 
mysteries  of  Eleusis  ; 

5.  And  the  admission  in  the  preface  of  Luke's  Gospel, 
that  his  work  was  only  a  compilation  of  previously  existing 
documents,  and  derived  in  common  with  the  works  which 
many  had  taken  in  hand  before  him  to  copy  from  the 
DiEGEsis,''  or  original  narration  preserved  in  the  sacred 
archives  of  the  church  : 

These  are  arguments  entirely  sufficient  to  relieve  the 
dilemma,  and  to  leave  it  rather  probable  that  Luke  took  his 

*  The  fii-st  verse  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  if  Gospel-readers  could  but  see  what 
was  under  their  nose,  would  prevent  their  ever  more  pretending;  that  the  Gospeb 
were  original  compositions.  " Forasmvrh  as  ma7t"  h'"'  i  ■  '  n  hand  to  set 
the  DiEGEsrs  in  order,'"  which  was  the  original  '>'<»-u  vv!..'  o  the  Apocryphal 
Gospels  were  taken,  and  afterward,  the  improved  versions  jiscribcd  to  Matthew, 
Mark,  and  Luke,  which  obtained  final  approbation,  and  so  caused  not  only  the 
previous  versions,  but  the  Diegesis  itself,  from  which  they  were  all  taken,  to  be 
laid  aside. 


CORROBORATIONS.  89 

account  from  the  same  document  which  the  apostle  had  pre- 
viously quoted,  or  even  from  the  text  of  the  apostle  himself. 
Thus,  no  exception  from  the  general  rule  remains  ;  and 
we  must  admit,  with  all  its  consequences,  the  prior  exist- 
ence of  these  epistolary  writings,  detailing,  as  they  do,  the 
history  of  communities  of  Christians,  and  fully  established 
churches  in  Rome,  Corinth,  Galatia,  Ephesus,  Philippi, 
Colosse,  and  Thessalonica,  '■'■rooted  and  grounded  in  the 
faith,^^ — '■'■beloved  of  God,'' — '■'■called  of  Christ  Jesiis" — "in 
every  thing  enriched,  in  all  utterance  and  all  knowledge,'' — 
"  coming  behind  in  no  good  gift,"  and  having,  as  the  apostle, 
in  the  case  of  the  Galatian  church,  emphatically  declares, 
so  certainly  received  the  only  true  and  authentic  Gospel, 
that  "  if  even  the  apostle  himself,  or  an  angel  from  heaven, 
should  preach  any  other  gospel  than  that  ivhich  they  had  received, 
LET  HIM  BE  ACCURSED."  Gal.  1.  8. — Scc  Syntagma  of  the 
Evidences,  p.  75. 

6.  Here  we  find  the  Gospel  already  so  fully  established, 
that  there  was  a  sense  in  which  it  could  be  said  that  it  had 
been  preached  unto  every  creature  under  heaven  (Colos.  i.  23), 
before  the  date  assigned  to  any  one  of  the  gospels  that  have 
come  down  to  us,  before  any  one  of  the  disciples  had  suf- 
fered martyrdom,  before  any  one  of  them  could  have  com- 
pleted his  commission.  Here  we  find  a  spiritual  dynasty 
established,  exercising  the  most  tremendous  authority  ever 
grasped  by  man,  not  merely  over  the  lives  and  fortunes, 
minds  and  persons,  but  over  the  supposed  eternal  desti- 
nies of  its  enslaved  and  degraded  vassals,  and  confirmed 
by  so  strong  an  influence  over  all  their  powers  of  resistance, 
that  its  haughty  possessor  could  bear  them  witness  that  they 
were  ready  to  pluck  their  eyes  out,  and  give  them  to  him.  Here 
we  find  churches  already  perfectly  organized  "  to  their 
power,"  yea  (and  the  Apostle  boasts),  beyond  their  power, 
contributing  to  the  pomp  and  splendour  of  their  ministers, 
and  beseeching  them,  with  much  entreaty,  to  take  their  mo- 
ney from  them.*     (2  Cor.  viii.  4). 

7.  Here  we  find  the  distinct  orders  of  bishops  and  deacons 
already  reigning  in  the  plenitude  of  their  distinctive  autho- 
rities ;  and  the  bishops,  forsooth,  the  proudest  of  the  proud, 
already  of  %uch  long  prescription  in  their  seat  of  power, 
as  often  to  have  abused  that  power,  and  to  need  admoni- 
tions "  not  to  be  self-xoilled,  not  to  be  given  to  tcine,  no  strikers, 

*  And  what  goes  with  the  story  of  the  Apostles,  meeting  with  such  ill  success 
as  to  have  to  lay  down  their  lives  for  their  testimony  ?  It  is  not  only  not  true, 
but  not  conceivable  to  be  true  ;  it  out-herod's  Herod,  and  out-lies  the  consistency 
of  romawce  itself.  9* 


90  REFERENCES. 

and  not  given  to  filthy  lucre,''''  (Tit.  i.  7,)  as  some  of  that 
right-reverend  order  must  have  been  proved  to  be,  ere 
such  admonitions  coukl  have  been  called  for  ;  yet  called 
for  they  were,  and  necessary  they  had  become,  as  the 
reader  will  see  by  the  table,  some  eight  or  ten  years  before 
the  date  assigned  to  the  writing  of  the  four  Gospels. 

"  The  Essenians,  of  whom  Philo  has  written  the  history, 
were  confessedly  Pythagorians,  and  I  think  we  may  see 
some  traces  of  these  people  among  the  Druids.  They  ex- 
isted before  Christianity,  and  lived  in  buildings  called 
monasteria  or  monasteries,  and  were  called  Koinobioi* 
or  Coenobites.  They  were  of  three  kinds,  some  never  mar- 
ried, others  of  them  did.  They  are  most  highly  spoken  of 
by  all  the  authors  of  antiquity  who  have  named  them." — 
The  Celtic  Druids,  by  Godfrey  Higgins,  Esq.f  a.  d.  1827,  p.  125. 

Were  there  any  degree  of  difficulty  in  accounting  for 
such  a  scheme  of  tyrannous  aggrandisement,  and  of  ob- 
taining unbounded  power  and  influence  over  the  subju- 
gated reason  of  mankind,  philosophy,  that  forbids  all  sup- 
position of  supernatural  agency,  would  acknowledge  that 
difficulty  ;  but  to  imagine  any,  in  accounting  for  the  rise 
and  progress  of  Christianity,  we  must,  by  a  laborious  effiart 
of  imagination,  imagine  nature  to  be  the  very  reverse  in 
every  thing  from  what  we  experience  it  to  be  ;  we  must 
suppose  a  man  to  be  at  a  loss  to  find  his  own  head  ;  we 
must  suppose  Infinite  Wisdom  teaching  trickery  to  a  thief, 
and  the  orchestra  of  the  spheres  supplying  resin  for  a 
fiddlestick — introducing  our  God  not  to  extricate  the  mys- 
tery of  the  scene,  but  to  sweep  the  stage,  and  grease  the 
pulleys. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

REFERENCES  TO  THE    MONKISH  OR  THERAPEUTAN    DOCTRINES, 
TO    BE    TRACED    IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 

1.  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  their'* s  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.''^ — Matt.  v.  3. 

This,  the  first  principle  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  Gali- 
lean  Thaumaturge,   was  also  the   first  principle   of  the 

.*  Koirojiiot — living  m  common.  Acts  iv.  32.  Hv  uvtoi?  ajTarra  xotra — "they 
had  all  thins;s  in  common." 

■\  Mr.  Higgins's  testimony  is  the  more  valuable,  as  it  is  that  of  a  witness 
averse  to  the  conclusions  to  which  he  marshals  us  the  way.  His  splendid  work, 
instructive  and  interesting  as  it  is  in  the  highest  degree,  though  superfluously  ortho- 
dox, has  delightfully  beguiled  the  tedium  of  many  of  my  prison-hours  ' 


REFERENCES.  91 

Therapeutse,  and  as  such  had  been  known  and  taug-ht  for 
ages  before  the  time  assigned  to  the  first  pubUcation  of 
the  Gospel. 

It  is  to  be  found  in  the  previously  existing  writings  of 
Menander,  in  the  sentence  (Sf  ioim.^ov,?'  o,  7,f.»,Ttc  rwr  -,^tw, — 
We  ought  to  consider  the  poor  as  especially  belonging  to  the 
gods  ;  and  in  the  ancient  Latin  adage,  "  Bona3  mentis 
soror  paupertas" — Poverty  is  the  sister  of  a  good  mind.  It 
is  observable,  that  this  Menander  the  comedian,  is  not 
only  quoted  by  name,  by  the  first  of  the  Fathers  (not 
apostolical),  Justin  Martyr,  in  his  apology  to  the  Emperor 
Adrian,  as  one  ofthe  authorities  with  whom  the  Christians 
held  so  many  sentiments  in  common,  but  is  again  plagi- 
arised into  the  text  of  1  Cor.  xv.  33 — ^&tiQova,v  }ja>j  xq,ic9' 
oinhu,  y.uy.ui—'-<-  Evil  commuuications  corrupt  good  man- 
ners." 

2.  "  And  the  disciples  came  and  said  unto  him^  Why  speakest 
thou  unto  them  in  parables  9  He  ansivered  and  said  unto  them, 
Because  it  is  given  unto  you  to  knotc  the  mystenes  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  but  to  them  it  is  not  given." — Matt.  xiii.  10.  "  Unto 
you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mystery  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  but 
unto  them  that  are  tdthout,  all  these  things  are  done  in  parables  ; 
that  seeing,  they  may  see  and  not  perceive,  and  hearing,  they  may 
hear  and  not  understand.''^ — Mark  iv.  11. 

Surely,  here,  and  in  the  innumerable  passages  to  the 
same  effect,  the  principle  of  deceiving  the  vulgar  is  held 
forth  in  its  most  disgusting  deformity.  Here  the  double 
and  mystical-sense  system,  as  adopted  by  the  Therapeuta?, 
is  put  in  full  exemplification. 

3.  "  And  there  be  eunuchs,  which  have  made  themselves  eunuchs 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven'' s  sake.  He  that  is  able  to  receive  it, 
let  him  receive  it.'" — Matt.  xix.  12. 

Let  the  reader  only  ask  himself  the  obvious  questions, 
what  eunuchs  could  they  be  ?  Certainly,  not  followers  of 
the  law  of  Moses,  which  held  a  personal  defect,  however 
involuntarily  incurred,  as  disqualifying  the  unfortunate 
from  ever  entering  into  the  congregation  of  the  Lord, 
Deut.  xxiii.  1.  Nor  was  a  future  state  of  rewards  ever 
propounded  to  the  selfishness  or  ambition  of  the  children 
of  Israel. 

4.  John  the  Baptist  is  described  as  a  Monk,  residing  in 
the  wilderness,  practising  all  the  austerities  of  the  contem- 
plative life,  neither  eating  nor  drinking  in  observance  of  the 
demands  of  nature  ;  "his  food  was  locusts  and  wild-honey  :" 
and  not  only  a  monk,  but  a  father  confessor,  since  "  all 
the  land  of  Judea,  and  they  of  Jerusalem,  were  all  bap- 


92  REFERENCES. 

tized  of  him,  confessing  their  sins."  Here,  then,  is  certainly 
an  Ascetic — in  the  strictest  circumstances  of  description, 
a  Monkish  confessor — the  q^dmitted  forerunner  of  Christ,  of 
whom  he  is  represented  as  saying,  that  "  Moses  and  the 
prophets  were  until  John  the  Baptist,  but  since  then  the 
kingdom  of  God*  was  preached."  The  great  absurdity, 
however,  of  representing  the  sinless  Jesus  as  receiving 
baptism  of  John  for  the  remission  of  his  sins,  would  have 
been  evaded,  had  the  compilers  of  our  Gospels  stuck  to 
the  text  of  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews,  or  that 
of  these  Hebrew-descended  Therapeuts,  which  Lessing 
and  Niemeyerf  have  so  convincingly  shown  to  have  been 
the  original  from  which  their  legends  are  copied,  and  from 
which  it  appears  that  Jesus  actually  refused  to  be  bap- 
tized, saying,  "  What  sin  have  I  committed,  that  I  should 
be  baptized  by  him  .''"  And  how  could  that  horrible  spe- 
cies of  self-martyrdom,  the  greatest  evidence  of  sincerity 
in  the  faith  that  could  be  imagined,  have  been  practised 
'■'■for  the  kingdom  ef  heaven''s  sake,''^  if  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
had  not  been  propounded  to  the  faith  of  these  visionaries 
as  the  reward  of  such  a  sacrifice,  sufficiently  long  before, 
and  sufficiently  notoriously,  to  be  quoted  thus  as  an  his- 
torical example,  by  the  speaker  in  the  text  of  Matthew  ? 

It  is  evident  that  Origen,  the  most  distinguished  and 
learned  of  all  the  Christian  Fathers,  must  have  read 
Christ's  recommendation  of  this  suicidal  act  in  its  very 
strongest  sense,  or  have  found  it  in  some  earlier  copies  of 
the  Gospel  than  have  come  down  to  us,  urged  in  stronger 
terms,  or  his  excellent  understanding  would  never  have 
fallen  under  the  horrors  of  a  belief  that  it  was  necessary  to 
imitate  the  example  thus  commended,  and  to  prepare  him- 
self for  singing  in  hearen,  by  spoiling  his  voice  for  preach- 
ing upon  earth. 

5.  But  Matt,  xviii.  15,  betrays,  in  the  most  indisputable 
evidence,  the  previous  existence  and  established  discipline 
of  a  Christian  church,  such  as  that  of  the  Therapeutae  is 
described  to  have  been,  from  any  length  of  time  anterior  to 
the  Christian  era. 

"  Jlforeofcr,  if  thy  brother  shall  trespass  against  thee,  go 
and  tell  him  his  fault  heticeen  thee  and  him  alone  :  if  he  shall 
hear  thee,  thou  hast  gained  thy  brother :  16  But  if  he  will  not 
hear   thee,   then   take   mth  thee   one   or   two   more,    that  in   the 

*  This  phrase,  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  all  its  synonymfs,  was  peculiarly 
characteristic  of  the  monkish  fraternity  of  Kgypt — the  dynasty  of  priests,  as  para- 
mount to  that  of  kings. 

t  Quoted  in  Marsh's  Michaelis,  and  hereafter  in  this  Diegebis. 


REFERENCES.  93 

mouth  of  ttco  or  three  icitnesses,  every  word  may  be  established. 
17  Jlnd  if  he  shall  neglect  to  hear  them,  tell  it  unto  The 
Church  :  but  if  he  neglect  to  hear  The  Church,  let  him 
be  unto  thee  an  heathen  man  and  a  publican.  18  Verily,  I  say 
unto  you,  Whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth,  shall  be  bound  in 
heaven,''^  &c.  &c. 

If  this  does  not  involve  all  that  the  vmwary  admissions 
of  Eiisebius  and  Epiphanius  would  lead  us  to,  even  the 
previous  existence  of  the  whole  Christian  dynasty  in  all 
its  corruption,  or  in  all  its  purity,  long  anterior  to  any  time 
when  such  lang-uage  could  have  been  used,  or  the  Gospel 
which  contained  such  languao^e  could  have  been  written  ; 
if  it  betray  not  its  desig-n  to  subserve  the  purposes  of  eccle- 
siastical usurpation  ;  if  it  savour  not  of  popery  in  the 
rankest  tank  that  ever  pope  himself  was  popish  ;  there 
is  no  skill  in  criticism  to  discover  any  truth  below  the 
surface-  of  expression — no  wrong  in  any  wrong  that  can 
be  put  otr  as  right — no  Rome  in  Italy — no  day-light  in  the 
sun-shine. 

6.  "  Remember  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  how  he  said.  It  is 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.''^ — Acts  xx.  35. 

No  such  words  as  these  are  contained  in  either  of  our 
four  Gospels  ;  they  must,  therefore  have  been  contained 
in  some  gospel  which  previously  existed,  which  was  known 
and  established  in  the  esteem  of  the  persons  who  were 
thus  reminded  of  it,  and  which  therefore  ought  not  to  have 
been  rejected. 

"  It  is,  I  think,"  says  Lardner,  (vol  1,  p.  71,  4to.  edit.) 
"  a  just  observation  of  Dr.  Prideaux,  that  almost  all  that 
is  peculi-"  in  this  sect,  is  condemned  by  Christ  and  his 
apostles.  ' 

But  from  this  admission  follows,  at  any  rate,  the  cer- 
tainty of  the  pre  dous  notoriety  of  this  sect,  and  of  those 
tenets  which  were  peculiar  to  it. 

And  if,  excepting  the  "  almost  all  that  was  peculiar  to  this 
sect,''''  which  Christ  and  his  apostles  condemned,  there  yet 
remained  something  which  was  peculiar  to  this  sect,  which 
they  adopted,  what  other  conclusion  can  follow,  than  that 
the  Christian  tenets  were  but  a  reformation  upon  the  pre- 
existent  Essenian  principles,  and  had  no  claim  of  them- 
selves to  a  character  of  originality  ?  We  say,  in  like 
manner,  at  this  day,  that  our  Protestant  church  condemns 
almost  all  that  is  peculiar  to  the  church  of  Rome,  while  in 
that  condemnation  itself  is  involved  an  admission  of  its 
prior  existence,  and  of  its  common  origin.     There  can  be 


94  REFERENCES. 

no  conceivable  reason  why  the  peculiar  tenets  of  a  parti- 
cular sect  should  be  sing-led  out  for  particular  condemna- 
tion, unless  the  condeumers  stood  in  some  more  imme- 
diate relation,  or  knew  something  more  particularly  of  the 
tenets  so  condemned,  than  of  any  other  condemnable 
tenets. 

The  force  of  so  particular  a  condemnation  of  almost  all 
that  was  peculiar,  involves  as  particular  an  approbation  and 
sanction  of  whatever  it  was  that  was  not  included  in  so 
particular  a  condemnation. 

Not  to  object,  that,  in  ordinary  fairness,  the  gauging- of 
the  Essenian  tenets  so  as  to  determine  ichich,  and  how  many 
of  them,  amounted  to  almost  all,  should  hardly  be  trusted  to 
the  fidelity  of  those  who  have  the  strongest  interest  in  dis- 
paraging and  under-rating  those  tenets. 

Again,  the  conjoining  Christ  and  his  Apostles  as  concurring 
in  the  condemnation  of  almost  all  that  was  peculiar  to  this 
sect,  is  assuming  a  concurrence  unsupported  by  evidence, 
and  inconsequential  in  reason. 

It  by  no  means  follows,  that  he  and  they,  in  every  in- 
stance, must  have  approved  and  condemned  by  the  same 
rule  ;  the  need  they  had  of  being  instructed  by  him,  is  a 
reason,  and  the  rebukes  they  frequently  received  from  him, 
is  a  proof,  that  their  judgments  and  his  might  be  the  reverse 
of  each  other. 

Nor  is  it  a  just  and  fair  conclusion,  that  all  the  apostles 
of  Christ  condemned  what  it  cannot  be  shown  that  more 
than  one  of  them  condemned,  and  which  all  the  rest  may 
in  all  probability  have  approved. 

Nor,  if  it  be  Paul  alone  who  hath  condemned,  is  it  just 
or  fair  to  conclude  that  even  one  of  the  apostles  of  Christ 
has  done  so  ;  since  the  claim  of  Paul  to  be  considered  as 
one  of  the  apostles  of  Christ,  rests  on  his  own  presvnnption 
only,  and,  to  say  the  least  against  it,  is  in  the  highest  de- 
gree questionable.* 

Surely,  nothing  could  be  more  peculiar  to  any  sect,  than 
the  conceit  of  making  themselves  "  Eiumchs  for  the  king- 
dom of  hea.ven''s  sake  ;"  and  as  surely,  it  is  any  other  sort 
of  language  rather  than  that  of  condemnation,  in  which 
Christ  is  represented  as  speaking  of  that  peculiarity, 
Matt.  xix.  12. 

*  lie  is  recognized  only  in  the  2d  I'pistle  of  Peter,  cliap.  iii.  verse  14,  as  a 
beloved  brothrr,  which  itself  is  no  style  or  designation  of  apnstliship,  even  if  the 
authenticity  of  this  epistle,  in  which  it  is  contained,  were  indisputable,  which  it  is 
not. — See  .Marsh's  Michaelis,  in  i<co. 


REFERENCES.  95 

What  the  other  peculiarities  of  this  sect  were,  may  be 
collected  from  the  version  I  have  given  of  the  text  of 
Eusebius  on  the  subject. 

Michaelis  supplies,  from  the  further  authorities  of  Philo, 
from  Josephus,  Solinus,  and  Pliny,  that  their  principles 
were  generally  derived  from  the  Oriental  or  Gnostic  Phi- 
losophy, of  which  they  observed  the  moral  part,  while  they 
rejected  all  its  more  absurd  and  egregious  metaphysical 
speculations.*  They  abstained  from  blood,  and  would  not 
even  offer  a  sacrifice,  because  they  regarded  the  slaying 
of  beasts  as  sinful. 

Most  of  them  abstained  from  marriage,  and  thought  it 
an  obstacle  to  the  search  after  wisdom. 

The  places  in  which  they  pursued  their  meditations, 
and  which  they  held  sacred,  were  called  fiovaar>joia  (that  is, 
Monasteries).  "  All  ornamental  dress  they  detested." — 
JWichaelis^  vol.  4,  p.  83. 

7.  Whose  language,  then,  but  their's,  or  of  the  followers 
of  their  sect,  could  that  be  ? 

"  Whose  adorning^  let  it  not  be  that  outward  adorning  of 
plaiting  the  hair,  arid  of  wearing  of  gold,  or  of  putting  on  of 
apparel,^''  &c. — 1  Pet.  iii.  3. 

"  J\ot  with  broidered  hair,  or  gold,  or  pearls,  or  costly  array, ^^ 
—1  Tim.  ii.  9. 

"  They  maintained  a  perfect  community  of  goods, 
and  an  equality  of  external  rank,  considering  vassalage 
as  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature." — Michaelis,  vol.  4, 
p.  83. 

What  could  more  naturally  and  directly  tend  to  render 
their  system  acceptable  to  the  poor,  and  to  spread  it  at  any 
time  among  those  who  had  neither  honour  nor  wealth  to 
lose  ?  What  language  could  more  nearly  describe  the 
primitive  condition  of  the  evangelical  community  as  pour- 
trayed  in  Acts  iv.  32,  or  more  entirely  harmonize  with 
those  words  ascribed  to  Christ  ? 

8.  "  Fe  know  that  the  princes  of  the  Gentiles  exercise  dominion 
over  them,  and  they  that  are  great  exercise  authority  upon 
them.  But  it  shall  not  be  so  among  you  ;  but  whosoever  loill 
be  great  among  you,  let  him  be  your  minister ;  and  whosoever 
will  be  chief  among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant." — Matt. 
XX.  25. 

*  That  is,  •'  they  were  the  Eclectic  Philosophers,  who  rejected  the  evil,  and 
chose  the  good,  out  of  every  system  of  religion  or  philosophy  that  had  been  pro- 
pounded to  mankind,  and  who  had  a  flourishing  university  already  established  at 
Alexandria  when  our  Saviour  was  upon  e&Tth."—Mosheim. 


96  REFERENCES. 

"  Be  not  ye  called  Rabbi.,  for  one  is  your  Master^  even 
Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren.  Jlnd  call  no  man  your  father 
upon  the  earth,  for  one  is  yoi^r  Father  tvhich  is  in  heaven.'''' — 
Matt,  xxiii.  9.  "  They  believed  the  soul  would  live  for 
ever  ;  but  they  seem  to  have  denied  the  resurrection  of 
the  body,  which,  according-  to  their  principles,  would  only 
render  the  soid  sinful,  by  being  rc-united  with  it.  They 
attributed  a  natural  holiness  to  the  Sabbath-day,  because 
it  is  the  seventh,  and  because  the  number  (seven)  results 
from  adding  the  sides  of  a  square  to  those  of  a  triangle — 
thus  :  □  They  spent  most  of  their  time  in  contemplation, 
which  they  called  philosophical,  and  boasted  of  a  philoso- 
phy pretended  to  be  derived  from  their  ancestors.  And, 
notwithstanding  their  general  profession  of  the  contem- 
plative life,  great  numbers  of  their  sect  were  established  in 
populous  towns.  "  Nor  is  it  one  city  only  that  they  oc- 
cupy," says  Josephus,  "  but  many  dwelt  in  each  city  ; 
and  the  provider  for  the  faction  is  especially  discernible 
among  strangers,  by  his  engagement  in  storing  up  clothing 
and  necessary  articles  :"*  from  which  it  should  seem  they 
were  the  old-clothes-raen  of  the  world,  from  the  remotest 
antiquity.  "  It  is  manifest,"  argues  Michaelis,t  "  that 
the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  that  to  the  Colossians,  and 
the  1st  to  Timothy,  were  written  with  a  view  of  confuting 
this  sect ;  for  even  the  very  words  which  Philo  has  used 
in  describing  their  tenets,  are  for  the  most  part  retained 
by  St.  Paul. 

9.  "  Jind  a  certain  Jetc,  named  Jlpollos,  born  at  Alexandria., 
an  eloquent  man,  and  mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  came  to  Ephesus. 
This  man  ims  instructed  in  the  umy  of  the  Lord,  and  being  fervent 
in  spirit,  he  spake  and  taught  diligently  the  things  of  the  Lord, 
knowing  only  the  baptism  of  John  ;  and  he  began  to  speak  boldly 
in  the  synagogue  ;  xvhom  when  Jlquila  and  Priscilla  had  heard, 
they  took  him  unto  them,  and  expounded  unto  him  the  icay  of  God 
more  perfectly.''^ — Acts  xviii.  24. 

Let  the  reader  follow  the  clue  that  is  here  put  into  his 
hands,  in  this  historical  and  evidently  credible  part  of  the 
real  adventures  of  these  schismatical  missionaries  from 
the  original  Essenian  sect.     Here  is  Apollos,  of  Pagan- 

*  Mia  ux  tniir  uvrmv  >;  tioai?,  a/A  'ev  eyanrtj  xctrotitHai,  /;o/.Aoi — K);(hiiwv  sv 
txaani  nolti  ru  TLtyuixTuc:  t'iaiQirtug  iiuf  c,nuiv  anoSitxrvTai;  Tautcvwi'  ta&tjra  xat 
•ira  iniTtiStia. — Belt.  Jud.  lib.  2,  s.  4. 

t  Michaelis,  in  his  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament,  by  Herbert  Marsh,  now 
Bishop  of  Telerborough,  vol.  4,  p.  84. 


REFERENCES.  97 

name  ;  born  in  the  very  metropolis  in  which  the  Essenian 
sect  was  of  highest  repute  ;  ere  any  one  of  the  apostles 
can  be  pretended  to  have  preached  the  Gospel  in  that 
country  ;  already  instructed  in  the  way  of  the  Lord,  and 
set  up  as  a  preacher  of  that  way^  in  Ephesus.  And  our  most 
learned  critic  rather  maintains  than  conceals  the  incontro- 
vertible fact,  that  "  the  earliest  and  principal  members  of 
the  Christian  community  were  attached  to  this  sect." — 
Michaelis,  vol.  4,  p.  88. 

Surely,  then,  it  is  only  want  of  moral  fortitude,  and 
an  unwillingness  to  embrace  truths  contrary  to  prec9n- 
ceived  prejudices,  that  hinders  man  from  seeing  truths 
so  evident,  as  that  this  Essenian  or  Therapeutan  sect 
itself  were,  as  Eusebius  has  honestly  admitted  them  to  be, 
Christians ;  that  Alexandria,  and  not  Jerusalem,  was  the 
cradle  of  the  infant  church  ;  that  their  ancient  scriptures 
were  the  first  types  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  ;  that  the 
natural  and  probable  parts  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  are 
journals  of  the  real  adventures  of  schismatical  mission- 
aries from  this  ancient  fraternity  of  Monks,  who,  after 
leaving  their  monasteries  in  the  deserts  of  Thebais,  cut 
out  to  themselves  a  new  path  to  fame  and  fortune,  by 
throwing  off  the  stricter  discipline  of  their  mother  church, 
opposing  its  less  popular  doctrines,  and  retaining  what 
they  chose  to  retain,  in  such  new-fangled  or  reformed 
guise,  as  to  give  them  the  advantage  of  laying  claim  either 
to  antiquity  or  originality,  as  their  drift  of  argument  might 
require.  Like  the  Protestant  reformers  in  later  ages, 
those  who  were  called  Christians  first  at  Antioch,  turned 
round  upon  their  ecclesiastical  superiors,  heaped  all 
manner  of  abuse  and  misrepresentation  upon  them  and 
their  tenets,  and  pretended  to  a  purer  system  of  doctrine, 
and  even  a  higher  antiquity,  than  the  church  from  which 
they  sprang. 

"It  is  not  impossible  (though  till  further  proof  be 
given,  it  cannot  be  asserted  as  a  fact)  that  the  "  Vagabond 
Jews,  exorcists,  icho  took  upon  them  to  call  over  them  ichich 
had  evil  spirits,  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,^^  (Acts  xix.  13,) 
were  likewise  Essenes  ;  for  it  is  well  known  that  the 
Essenes  applied  themselves  to  superstitious  arts,  and 
pretended  to  have  converse  with  spirits.  Some  of  them 
laid  claim  to  the  gift  of  prophecy,  of  which  we  find  many 
instances  in  Josephus  ;"  and  of  which  we  find  as  certainly, 
similar  instances  of  the  same  claim,  advanced  by  the  first 
preachers  and  earliest  members  of  the  Christian  com- 
10 


98  REFERENCES. 

munity:  so  that  the  only  question  on  this  evidence  is, 
which  party  had  the  juster  claim  to  a  faculty,  of  which 
reas*on  denies  the  possibility  to  either?  In  a  word,  we 
have  only  to  decide  who  were  the  greater — that  is,  the 
more  successful  impostors. 

"  Among  the  first  professors  of  Christianity,"  says 
Mosheim,  "  there  were  few  men  of  learning- — few  who 
had  capacity  enough  to  insinuate  into  the  minds  of  a  gross 
and  ignorant  multitude^  the  knowledge  of  divine  things,  God, 
therefore,  in  his  infinite  wisdom,  judged  it  necessary  to  raise 
up  in  many  churches,  extraordinary  teachers,  who  were  to 
discourse  in  the  public  assemblies,  upon  the  various  points 
of  the  Christian  doctrine,  and  to  treat  with  the  people  in 
the  name  of  God,  as  guided  by  his  direction,  and  clothed 
with  his  authority.  Such  were  the  prophets  of  the  New 
Testament.  They  were  invested  with  the  power  of  cen- 
suring publicly  such  as  had  been  guilty  of  any  irregularity; 
but  to  prevent  the  abuses  which  designing  men  might 
make  of  this  institution,  by  pretending  to  this  extraor- 
dinary character,  in  order  to  execute  unworthy  ends, 
there  were  always  present  in  the  public  auditories,  judges 
DIVINELY  APPOINTED,  who,  by  Certain  and  infallible 
marks,  were  able  to  distinguish  the  false  prophets  from 
the  true.  This  order  of  prophets  ceased,  when  the  want  of 
teachers,  which  gave  rise  to  it,  was  abundantly  siipplied." 
—Mosh.  EccL  Hist.  vol.  1,  p.  102. 

The  mind  smarts  for  the  degradation  which  the  necessity 
of  maintaining  popular  delusion  could  impose  on  so  intel- 
ligent and  highly-cultivated  a  scholar,  in  obliging  him  to 
descend  to  this  language  of  utter  idiotcy, — this  reasoning 
that  might  disgrace  the  nursery.  •  Here  is  infinite  wisdom, 
to  be  sure,  having  recourse  to  expedients  to  insinuate  its 
communications  into  the  minds  of  the  gross  and  ignorant 
multitude;  divinely  raiscd-up  prophets,  clothed  with  the 
authority  of  God  himself ;  and  divinely  appointed  judges^ 
clothed  with  still  higher  authority,  to  judge  whether 
infinite  wisdom  was  right  or  wrong,  but  leaving  the  gross 
and  ignorant  multitude  as  much  in  need  as  ever  of  some 
other  divinely  appointed,  still  higher  judges,  to  judge 
whether  the  other  judges  judged  fairly;  as  'tis  certain  that 
the  gross  and  ignorant  multitude,  for  whose  benefit  the  divine 
insinuations  were  intended,  were  held  to  be  no  judges  at 
all,  and  God  or  Devil  was  all  as  one  to  them.  How  must 
a  man  have  looked  when  he  reasoned  thus.''  But  the 
absurdity  of  this  reasoning  is  not  worse  than  an  attempt 


REFERENCES.  99 

to  give  respectability  to  the  authority  which  makes  it  the 
best  account  that  can  be  given  of  the  matter. 

10.  '•'■How  is  it,''''  asks  the  Apostle  himself,  that  "  every 
one  of  you  hath  a  psalm,  hath  a  doctrine,  hath  a  tongue, 
hath  a  revelation  ?  If  there  come  in  those  that  are  unlearned,  or 
•unbelievers,  ivill  they  not  say  that  ye  are  mad  ? — 1  Cor.  xiv. 
23. 

Could  language  convey  clearer  evidence,  that  in  the 
worst  and  grossest  sense  of  what  Philo  or  Josephus  have 
represented  the  Essenian  churches  to  have  been,  that  in 
reality  the  first  assemblies  of  these  primitive  christians 
were.  And  this  is  a  state  of  things  described  as  obtaining, 
several  years  before  the  writing  of  any  one  of  our  four 
Gospels. 

If  there  were  really  any  features  of  distinctive  and 
different  origination  between  these  long  anterior  Thera- 
peutan  societies,  and  those  who,  in  an  after-age,  acquired 
the  name  of  Christian  churches,  all  traces  of  that  dis- 
tinctiveness are  lost.  To  all  scope  of  history,  and  possi- 
bility of  understanding,  they  must  be  pronounced  and 
considered  to  be,  one  and  the  same  class  and  order  of 
religious  fanatics. 

As  for  the  pretence  to  any  thing  supernatural,  phi- 
losophy teaches  us  to  view  it  only  as  a  certain  and 
incontestible  mark  of  imposture,  by  whomsoever  ad- 
vanced. Prophecy!  the  very  name  of  such  a  thing  is  a 
surrender  of  all  pretence  to  evidence  ;  'tis  the  lan- 
guage of  insanity!  The  fetor  of  the  charnel-house  is  not 
more  charged  with  its  admonition  to  our  bodily  health, 
to  withdraw  from  the  proximities  of  death,  than  the 
cracky  sound  of  the  thing  is,  with  warning  to  our  reason, 
that  we  are  out  of  the  regions  of  sobriety ,  wherever  it  is 
so  much  as  seriously  spoken  of :  no  honest  man  ever 
pretended  to  it. 

11.  Matthew  (xviii.  18)  relates  a  story  of  Jesus  rebuking 
a  devil  who  kept  his  hold  so  obstinately  on  the  body  of  a 
boy,  that  his  disciples,  with  all  the  miraculous  powers 
with  which  he  had  previously  gifted  them,  were  unable  to 
cast  him  out  ;  which  Jesus  is  represented  as  accounting 
for  by  saying,  ^'■Howbeit  this  kind  gocth  not  out  but  by  fasting 
and  prayer.'''' — Matt,  xviii.  21. 

.  "  Now  we  know,"  says  Michaelis,  "  that  the  Jews 
ascribed  almost  all  diseases  to  the  influence  of  evil  spirits. 
To  cure  a  disease,  therefore,  was,  according  to  their 
notions,   to  expel  an  evil   spirit  :  this  they  pretended  to 


100  REFERENCES. 

effect  by  charms  and  herbs;  and  we  have  seen  from  Euse- 
biiis,  what  extraordinary  efficacy  and  virtue  the  Thera- 
peiitans  ascribed  to  prayer  and  fasting." 

12.  The  whole  doctrine  of  election,  which  distingiiishes 
the  epistolary  writings  of  St.  Paul,  is  but  an  application 
to  the  persons  whom  he  addresses,  of  the  notions  which 
the  Jews  from  previous  ages  had  maintained,  whose  hopes 
of  acceptance  with  God  were  founded  on  the  merits  of 
their  ancestry.  We  have  Abraham  to  our  father,  is  repre- 
sented as  the  reason  they  offered,  why  they  had  no  need 
to  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance.  One  of  their 
principal  maxims  was,  N^n  0^X7  p'n  en*?  ty  Sxiiy'  ^3 — that 
is,  "  All  Israel  have  the  portion  of  eternal  life  allotted  to 
them." 

Another  of  the  Jewish  doctrines  is,  "  God  promised 
to  Abraham,  that  if  his  children  were  wicked,  he  would 
consider  them  as  righteous  on  account  of  the  sweet  odom' 
of  his  circumcised  foreskin."* 

The  holding  out  a  similar  inducement  to  the  selfishness 
and  cruelty  of  the  Gentile  nations,  with  reservation  of 
Jev/ish  prerogative,  constituted  all  the  difference  of  the 
reformed  Esseneism,  after  it  took  the  name  of  Christianity. 

13.  The  allegorical  method  of  expounding  their  scrip- 
tures, so  characteristic  of  the  Therapeutan  monks,  we  find 
entirely  adopted  and  avowed  by  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians,  chap.  4.  in  which,  of  the  most  simple  and 
obvious  apparent  facts  of  the  Old  Testament,  he  asserts, 
"  lohich  things  are  an  allegory.''^  The  two  sons  of  Abraham 
are  to  be  understood  as  two  covenants  ;  his  kept-mistress 
is  a  mountain  in  Arabia  ;  and,  again,  the  mountain  in 
Arabia,  is  the  city  Jerusalem. 

1-1.  Again,  in  2  Cor.  iii.'^,  the  allegorical  method,  so 
entirely  Esscnian,  is  spoken  of  as  the  chief  design  and 
intention  of  the  Gospel  ministry,  and  that  too,  even  with 
respect  to  the  sense  of  writings  which  constituted  what 
was  known  and  recognized  as  the  JVe^c  Testament,  when 
this  epistle  was  written,  of  which,  therefore,  the  four  Gos- 
pels which  have  come  down  to  us,  could  have  constituted 
no  part;  as  it  Mall  be  seen  by  the  table,  that  they  were 
not  written  till  six  or  seven  years  after  this  epistle. 

"^orf  also  hath  made  m  able  ministers  of  the  JSIho  Testament, 
not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the  spirit,  for  the  letter  killeth,'''' Slc.- 
which  principle  the  Christian  Fathers  carried  to  such  an 

*Pugio  Fidei.  v.  3,  dis.  3,  cap.  16,  quoted  ia  Michaeli 


vol. 


REFERENCES.  101 

extent,  that  they  hesitated  not  to  admit  that  the  Gospels 
themselves  were  not  defensible  as  truth  according  to  their 
literal  text.  "  There  are  things  contained  therein,"  says 
Origen,*  "  which,  taken  in  their  literal  sense,  are  mere 
falsities  and  lies."  And  of  the  whole  divine  letter, 
St.  Gregory!  asserts,  that  "it  is  not  only  dead,  but 
deadly."  And  Athanasius:]:  admonishes  us,*that  "  should 
we  understand  sacred  writ  according  to  the  letter,  we 
should  fall  into  the  most  enormous  blasphemies." 

15.  Many  objectionable  tenets  of  the  Essenian  sect  are 
reproved  and  opposed  in  passages  of  Paul's  epistles,  too 
numerous  to  be  quoted ;  but  all  in  the  manner  and  style 
of  one  who  had  been  particularly  acquainted  with  those 
tenets,  and  who  admitted  and  recognized  their  affinity 
and  relation  to  the  Christian  doctrines,  as  much  nearer 
than  any  of  the  errors  or  absurdities  of  the  other  forms  of 
heathenism. 

16.  Throughout  all  these  epistles,  ^we  find  the  Gospel 
spoken  of  by  all  the  varieties  of  designation  that  could  be 
applied  to  it,  as  already  preached,  as  read  in  all  the 
churches,  as  the  rule  of  faith,  the  test  of  orthodoxy — as 
being  then  of  high  antiquity — containing  all  the  received 
doctrines  with  respect  to  the  life  and  adventures  of  Jesus 
Christ,  all  that  was  necessary  to  make  a  man  wise  unto 
salvation  through  faith  in  Christ  Jesus:  how  he  died  for 
our  sins,  according  to  the  Scriptures;  and  that  he  was  buried; 
and  that  he  rose  again  the  third  day,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures.— 1  Cor.  XV.  4. 

17.  Upon  the  strength  and  faith  of  these  doctrines,  we 
find  churches  already  established,  and  the  distinct  orders 
of  bishops,  elders  or  priests,  and  deacons,  as  described  by 
Philo,  already  of  so  long  standing,  and  of  such  high 
honour  and  emolument,  that  it  could  have  become  a 
common  adage,  that  "*/  a  man  desire  the  office  of  a  bishop, 
he  desireth  a  good  work  ; "  many  of  the  community  having 
held  that  office  in  such  a  way  as  to  render  it  necessary,  in 
the  election  of  future  bishops,  that  care  should  be  had,  to 
appoint  such  as  should  be  "  not  given  to  wine,  no  strikers, 
not  greedy  of  filthy  lucre,"  &c. — 1  Tim.  iii.  3. 

And  this  was  the  state  of  things,  in  actual  existence,  be- 
fore the  writing  of  any  one  of  the  four  gospels. 

18.  "  In  my  father's  house  are  many  mansions ;  I  go  to 

*  Horn.  6,  in  Isaiah,  fol.  106.  D. 

t  Comment,  on  2  Kings,  c.  7. 

t  Questiones  ad  Antiochum.  torn.  2.  p.  357,  D. 

10* 


102  REFERENCES. 

prepare  a  place  for  you." — John  xiv.  2.     A  fair  translation 
of  the  passage  would  render  it  "In  my  father's  house  are 

many    monasteries." Ev    r>i     oixia    rov     narQog    ,uov,    ^ovai    TCoUat 

tlOlV. 

The  translation  here,  egregiously  protestantizes.  Monas' 
terij  is  the  correct  rendering  of  the  word  /'oi  .j ;  and  of  all 
possible  derivatives  and  combinations  of  it ;  the  leading-  or 
radical  idea  is,  a  solitary  abode,  where  each  individual  is 
excluded,  or  excludes  himself,  from  intercourse  with  others. 

To  those  who  consider  Monachism,  or  Monkery,  as  a 
corruption  of  Christianity,  sprung  up  in  some  later 
age,  this  and  such  like  texts  must  bear  the  appearance 
of  interpolations,  or  modernisms,  tending  to  betray  a 
later  date  than  that  challenged  for  these  writings.  But, 
taking  nature  for  our  guide,  we  nnist  necessarily  con- 
clude, that  an  imperfect  and  defective  system  was  infi- 
nitely more  likely  to  improve  by  time,  and  gradually  to 
throw  off  its  original  imperfections  and  defects,  than  a 
system  that  started  from  a  state  of  excellence  and  per- 
fection at  first,  to  become  in  a  few  ages  entirely  deterio- 
rated and  corrupted. 

The  positive  evidence,  then,  of  Philo,  to  the  prior  exist- 
ence of  Monkery,  has  that  challenge  on  our  conviction, 
which  must  ever  attend  the  highest  species  of  testimony, 
when  borne  to  the  highest  degree  of  probability. 

19.  In  the  first  verse  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians, 
there  is  a  distinction  made  between  the  general  congre- 
gation of  the  Saints,  or  Christians,  and  the  Bishops  and 
Deacons,  which,  by  the  learned  Evanson,  is  adduced  as 
an  instance  savouring  very  strongly  of  a  much  later  age 
than  that  of  the  Apostles. — Dis&onancef  p.  264. 

The  antipapistical  antipathies  of  this  Unitarian  divine, 
allowed  him  only  to  see  matter  of  offence  in  the  term 
Saints,  an  order  of  men,  as  he  supposes,  first  con- 
stituted by  the  superstitious  piety  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  :  but  surely  a  moment's  ingenuous  speculation  on 
the  probabilities  of  circumstances,  would  discover  matter  of 
equal  incongruity  in  the  idea  of  the  existence  of  the  dis- 
tinct orders  of  bishops  and  deacons,  in  a  flourishing 
national  church,  when  this  epistle  was  written,  ten  or 
twelve  years  before  the  date  of  any  one  of  our  four  gospels, 
and  within  the  life  time  of  one  who  was  the  cotemporary 
of  Christ,  and  the  companion  of  his  immediate  disciples. 

That  church,  and  all  others  that  could  have  had  in 
them  the  distinct  orders  of  bishops  and  deacons,  must 


REFERENCES.  103 

have  been  ancient  at  the  time.  There  could  be  no  bishops 
and  deacons  among-  new  converts.  Such  a  state  of  the 
church,  at  that  time,  involves  a  certain  demonstration,  that 
its  doctrine,  discipline  and  government  must  have  been  of 
many  years  standing-,  anterior  to  the  Aug-ustan  age. 

20.  It  is  a  violence  to  imagination,  and  costs  it  a  sort 
of  painful  effort  to  suppose  that  St.  Paul  could  have  written 
his  epistle  to  the  Romans,  in  the  Greek  language  :  We 
could  as  easily  fancy  a  general  address  to  the  inhabitants 
of  London,  in  Arabic. 

21 .  In  the  earliest  Greco-Latin  Codices,  the  passage, 
Romans  xii.  13.  '■^  Distributing  to  the  necessity  of  saints.''^ — Tai? 
XQiiai?  Twr  ayiwv  xoivwvowrt? — stood  "  communicatiug  to  the 
memories  of  the  saints."  i.  e. — Tui?  ins<a?Ttov  a/iuo  z.  t.  ;. — 
Of  this  passage,  Michaelis  remarks,  that  it  conveys  the 
language  and  sentiments  of  a  later  age  ;  "yo?,  being 
used  in  the  ecclesiastical  sense  of  the  word,  for  saints  or 
martyrs,  characters  unknown  at  Rome,  when  St.  Paul 
wrote  his  epistle  to  the  Romans  ;  and  this  fault,  for  a 
fault  he  conceives  it  evidently  is,  could  hardly  have  taken 
place  before  the  end  of  the  second,  or  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century. 

Mosheim  describes  the  festivals  and  commemorations  of 
the  martyrs,  being  celebrated  in  the  most  extravagant 
manner,  as  characteristic  of  the  depravity  of  the  fourth 
century:  and  all  Protestant  ecclesiastics,  strain  every 
nerve  to  throw  the  odium  of  what  they  esteem  corruptions 
of  the  primitive  purity,  on  later  ages. 

"  It  is  well  known,  among  other  things,  what  oppor- 
tunities of  sinning  were  offered  to  the  licentious,  by  what 
were  called  the  vigils  of  Easter  and  Whitsuntide,  or  Pen- 
tecost." Mosheim — vol.  i.  p.  398.  We  find  however  that  this 
religious  observation  of  the  vigils  of  the  great  festivals, 
especially  that  of  Easter,  in  commemoration  of  Christ's 
resurrection,  was  observed  in  a  distinguished  manner 
among  the  Therapeutan  or  Essenians,  and  as  it  was  an 
anmta/ observance,  must  have  obtained  many  years  before 
the  birth  of  Christ. — See  the  translated  chapter  from  Eusebius, 
verse  41. 

22.  "  Moreover,  brethren,  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all, 
that  which  I  also  received,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our 
sins,  according  to  the  Scriptures  ;  and  that  he  loas  buried,  and 
that  he  rose  again  the  third  day,  according  to  the  Scriptures  ; 
and  that  he  was  seen  of  Cephas,  then  of  the  twelve  :  after 
thcU^  he  was  seen  of  about  five   hundred  brethren  at    once,    of 


104  REFERENCES. 

whom  the  greater  part  remain  unto  this  present,  but  some  are 
fallen  asleep  :  after  that,  he  was  seen  of  James,  then  of  all  the 
apostles ;  and  last  of  all  he  was  seen  of  me  also,  as  of  one  bom  out 
of  due  time.'''' — i.  Corinth  xv.  1. 

The  writer  of  this  epistle,  here  refers  to  higher  authority 
than  his  own,  "  that,  which  he  also  received,''''  that  is,  scrip- 
tures, v/hich  related  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  ;  that  he 
appeared  after  his  resurrection  to  five  hundred  brethren 
at  once,  and  in  an  especial  manner,  to  Cephas,*  and  in  a 
like  especial  manner,  to  James. 

1.  These  circumstances  partake  largely  of  the  more 
marvellous  and  exaggerative  character  of  the  apocryphal 
gospels.  2.  They  are  certainly  not  contained  in  the  ca- 
nonical ones.  3.  And  yet  are  insisted  on,  as  so  essential 
to  the  Christian  faith,  that  unless  they  were  kept  in  me- 
mory. Christians  would  have  believed  in  vain.  4.  No  laws 
of  evidence  would  endure  the  unsupported  assumption 
that  the  witness,  Cephas,  was  the  same  person  as  the 
apostle,  Peter.  5.  Nor  were  there  tioelve  disciples,  after 
Judas,  who  was  one  of  the  number,  had  hanged  himself. 
6.  Nor  is  there  the  least  intimation,  in  any  of  our  gospels, 
of  an  especial  appearance  to  James.  7.  Nor  was  the 
number  of  the  brethren,  at  their  first  meeting,  after  Christ's 
ascension  from  the  top  of  Mount  Olivet,  more  than  "  about 
an  hundred  and  twenty."!  8.  Nor  was  there  time. — 
9.  Nor  was  it  possible,  that  the  scriptures,  which  detailed 
the  circumstances  of  Christ's  appearances  after  his  resur- 
rection, in  this  exaggerative  style,  could  have  been  in  any 
way  derived  from  our  four  gospels,  or  any  of  them  :  they 
not  having  been  written  till  twelve  years  after  this  epistle. f 

That,  other  scriptures  than  those  which  have  come 
down  to  us,  telling  the  Christian  story  in  a  different  way, 
were  the  original  basis  of  the  Christian  faith  ;  and  that 
those  other  scriptures  were  in  vogue  and  notoriety,  not 
only  before  our  gospels  were  written,  but  before  the  events 
related  in  our  gospels  had  occurred  ;  are  facts,  whose  force 
of  evidence  amounts  to  the  utmost  degree  of  certainty  of 
which  historical  fact  is  capable.  That  those  scriptures 
were  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Egyptian-Therapeuts  de- 
scribed by  Philo,  and  so  expressly  considered  by  Euscbius, 
is  matter  of  the  strongest  presumption  that  can  be  sup- 
posed in  the  absence  of  all  other  grounds  of  presumption. 

*Actsi.  15.  This  Cephas  was  one  of  the  70,  a  wholly  diflerenl  personage 
from  the  Peter  of  the  Gospels  :  to  this  assurance,  we- have  the  positive  assertion 
of  Eusebius. 

t  See  the  Table  of  the  Times  and  Places  of  Writing,  &c. 


REFERENCES.  105 

23.  ^^Ebe  lohat  shall  they  do,  ivhich  are  baptized  for  the 
dead,  if  the  dead  nse  not  at  all  ?  Why  are  they  then  baptized  for 
the  dead  ?"— 1  Cor.  xv.  29. 

Here  is  a  reference  to  some,  then  well  known  and  es- 
tablished relicrious  ceremony,  existing  in  a  Christian 
church  ;  of  which  ceremony  and  its  significancy,  and 
purport,  no  trace  or  vestige  has  come  down  to  us  :  nor 
can  our  commentators  come  to  any  sort  of  agreement,  as 
to  what  sense  should  be  attached  to  the  words.  It  is 
utterly  impossible,  that  such  a  baptism  could  have  come 
into  use,  or  have  acquired  such  a  notoriety,  as  to  make  it 
stand  for  so  general  an  argument,  as  that  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead,  within  the  term  of  life  of  any  one  who 
had  conversed  with  St.  Peter,  on  whom  it  hath  been  pre- 
tended,^  that  the  Christian  church  is  founded.  Let  the 
reader,  if  he  can,  conceive  any  other  way  of  accounting 
tor  the  text,  than  its*  reference  to  some  ancient  ceremony 
of  the  Egyptian  Therapeuts,  which,  after  the  schismatics 
and  seceders  from  their  communion,  had  acquired  the 
name  of  Christians,  grew  gradually  into  disuse,  and  so 
finally  sunk  in  oblivion.* 

24.  Acts  XX.  18.  St.  Paul  addresses  the  elders  of  the 
Ephesian  church, — "  /  have  been  toith  you  at  all  seasons. 
Ye  all  among  whom  I  have  gone  preaching  the  kingdom  of  God  ;" 
a  style  of  the  most  affectionate  intimacy.  Yet  the  writer 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  addresses  them  as  a 
stranger,  who  had  only  heard  of  their  faith  in  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  love  unto  all  the  saints."  (Eph.  i.  15.) — 
Query. — Could  the  Paul,  who  declared  in  the  one  case, 
and  the  Paul  who  wrote  in  the  other,  be  the  same  indi- 
vidual ?  Query. — Who  were  all  the  saints,  who  were  loved 
by  the  Ephesians,  at  least  twelve  years  before  any  one  of 
our  gospels  was  written  ?  and  consequently  as  many  years 
before  there  could  be  any  saints  whatever,  whose  faith 
had  been  founded  on  those  gospels  .'' 

25.  "  Little  children,  it  is  the  last  time  :  and  as  ye  have 
heard  that  Antichrist  shall  come,  even   now  are  there  many  anti- 

!,christs  ;  ichereby  we  know  that  it  is  the  last  time..'''' — 1  John  ii.  12. 
Here  is  a  full  confession  of  the  comparatively  modern 
character  of  this  epistle  : — 1.  The  time  which  could  be 
spoken  of  as  "  the  Imt,''^  with  relation  to  Christianity, 
could  not  but  at  least  have  been  late,  and  late  enough  to 
have  given  the  persons  so  addressed,  time  to  have  heard 

*  They  joined  themselves  to  Baal-Peov,  and  ate  the  offerings  of  the  dead. — 
Psalm.     The  reader  is  to  make  what  use  he  pleases  of  this  conjecture. 


106  REFERENCES. 

of  the  prophecy  that  Antichrist  should  come  :  and,  2.  To 
have  had  faith  in  it,  and  expectation  of  its  accomplish- 
ment, beforehand  :  3.  And  if  the  time  when  this  epistle  was 
written  (about  a.  d.  80)  was  the  last  of  Christianity, 
there  can  liave  been  no  Christianity  in  the  world  since 
then  :  4.  And  if  then^  while  St.  John  was  living,  Antichrist 
was  come,  and  it  was  the  last  time,  the  Christ  whom 
St.  John  intended  to  preach,  must  have  been  much  earlier 
in  the  world  than  that  time.  All  which  agrees  in  style 
and  manner  with  the  character  of  an  angry  Egyptian 
monk,  complaining  of  the  corruptions  and  perversions 
which  his  contemporaries  had  put  upon  the  pure  and 
original  Therapeutan  doctrines  ;  but  presents  not  a  single 
feature  in  keeping  with  the  character  of  one,  supposed  to 
be  himself  one  of  the  earliest  preachers  of  an  entirely  new 
rehgion,  who  existed  not  in  the  last  time,  but  in  the  first ; 
not  after  Christianity  had  run  to  seed,  but  before  it  had 
fully  sprung  up.  "  And  if  Christianity,"  says  Archbishop 
Wake,  "  remained  not  uncorrupted  so  long,  surely  we 
may  say,  it  came  up  and  was  cut  down  like  a  flower,  and 
continued  not  even  so  long  as  the  usual  term  of  the  life 
of  man." 

26.  "  /  wrote  unto  the  church  ;  but  Diotrephes,  who  loveth 
to  have  the  pre-eminence  among  them,  receiveth  us  not.  Where- 
fore, if  I  come,  I  will  remember  his  deeds  which  he  doeth^ 
prating  against  us  with  malicious  words  ;  and  not  conte7it  there- 
with, neither  doth  he  himself  receive  the  friars,  and  forbid- 
deth  them  that  would,  and  casteth  them  out  of  the  church.''^ — 
John  iii.  9.  10. 

1.  If  this  John  were  the  disciple  of  Christ,  this  text  is 
fatal  to  the  claims  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  since  it  shows  that 
the  rulers  of  the  church  had  rejected  his  writings.  2.  Its 
reference  to  the  circumstances  of  mendicant  friars,  or 
travelling  quack-doctors,  is  as  clear  as  the  day.  3.  But 
who  was  this  Diotrephes,  whose  name  signifies  literally 
the  ward  or  pupil  of  Jupiter  ?  Any  thing  rather  than  a 
Christian  name.  4.  And  with  what  conceivable  state  of 
a  Christian  conmiunity,  that  could  have  existed  during  the 
life-time  of  one  of  its  first  preachers,  can  we  associate 
the  idea  of  such  a  struggle  for  pre-eminence  ?  The  phas- 
nomena  admit  of  no  solution  but  that  which  determines 
that  these  writings  arc  the  compositions  of  no  such  persons 
as  is  supposed,  and  that,  however  ancient  we  take  them 
to  be,  they  refer  to  a  state  of  ecclesiastical  polity  still  more 
ancient. 


REFERENCES.  107 

27.  "  Obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over  you,  and  submit  your- 
selves, for  they  watch  for  your  souls,  as  they  that  must  give  an 
account.'''' — Heb.  xiii.  17. 

28.  '■^  Remember  them  that  have  the  rule  over  you,  who  have 
spoken  unto  you  the  word  of  God  .'" — Heb.  xiii.  7. 

What  have  we  here,  but  references  to  ecclesiastical 
government  and  spiritual  power,  already  established  in  all 
its  plenitude  ?  A  state  of  thing-s  which  could  not  possibly 
have  existed — a  sort  of  lang-uag-e  that  could  not  pos- 
sibly have  been  used,  in  any  reference  to  an  authority 
which  had  originated  within  the  life-time  of  the  persons 
so  ■  addressed,  or  to  a  icord  of  God,  of  which  the  then 
preachers,  were  the  first. 

29.  "  For  such  are  false  apostles,  deceitful  ivorkers,  trans- 
forming themselves  into  the  apostles  of  Christ ;  and  no  marvel, 
fbr  Satan  himself  is  transformed  into  an  angel  of  light.''^ — 
2  Cor.  xi.  13.  Aye  !  aye  !  And  with  what  state  of  a  reli- 
gion, whose  founder  had  been  crucified,  and  whose  doc- 
trines had  not  yet  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  second 
generation,  and  whose  apostles  had  nothing  but  spiritual 
blessings  to  confer  on  others,  and  nothing  but  martyrdom 
to  expect  for  themselves,  can  we  imagine  that  apostleship 
to  be  so  winning  a  game,  that  the  Devil  himself  would 
play  it  .''* 

THE    CONCLUSION 

Is  inevitable.  We  are  not,  perhaps,  entitled  certainly  to 
pronounce  that  it  was  so  ;  but  the  hypothesis  (if  it  be  no 
more),  that  Paul  and  his  party  were  sent  out,  in  the  first 
instance,  as  apostles,  or  missionaries,  from  this  previously 
existing  society  of  Monks,  which  had  for  ages,  or  any 
length  of  time  before,  fabricated  and  been  in  possession  of 
the  allegorical  fiction  of  Jesus  Christ ;  that  the  ^cts  of  the 
Apostles,  with  the  exception  of  all  their  supernatural  details, 
are  a  garbled  journal  of  his  real  adventures ;  and  the 
Epistles,  with  the  exception  of  some  improved  passages 
and  superior  sentiments  that  have  been  foisted  into  them, 
are  such  as  he  wrote  to  the  various  communities  in  which 
he  had  established  his  own  independent  supremacy,  by  a 
successful  schism  from  the  mother  church  :  this  hypothesis 
will  solve  all  the  phenomena  ;  which  is  what  no  other  will. 

*  There  are  innumerable  other  passages  to  the  like  effect ;  such  as  the  wild 
man  John  preaching  in  the  wilderness :  A  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness : 
the  miraculous  fasting  of  the  old  woman  Anna  :  the  pass-word  of  the  vigilant 
monks,  Watch  and  pray !  &c.  &c.  Whose  further  tractation  would  detain  me 
too  long  from  worthier  matter.  Let  the  reader  glance  his  eye  over  the  New  Tes- 
tament with  this  observance. 


108  PRELIMINARY. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ON  THE  CLAIMS  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES  OF  THE  NEW 
TESTAMENT  TO  BE  CONSIDERED  AS  GENUINE  AND 
AUTHENTIC. 


PRELIMINARY. 

There  is  no  greater  nor  grosser  delusion  perhaps  in  the 
world,  than  that  of  the  common  sophistry  of  arguing  for 
the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the  writings  of  the 
New  Testament,  upon  the  ridiculous  supposition,  that  the 
state  of  things  of  which  we  are  witnesses,  with  respect 
to  these  writings  in  our  times,  is  the  same,  or  much  like 
what  it  was,  in  the  primitive  ages  ;  that  is,  that  these 
writings  were  generally  in  the  hands  of  professing  Chris- 
tians, were  distinguished  as  pre-eminently  sacred,  had 
their  authority  universally  acknowledged,  or  were  so  ex- 
tensively diftused,  that  material  alterations  in  them  from 
time  to  time,  could  not  have  been  effected  without  certain 
discovery,  and  as  certain  reprobation  of  so  sacrilegious  an 
attempt. 

The  very  reverse  of  such  an  imaginary  resemblance  of 
past  to  present -circumstances,  is  the  truth  of  history,  as 
borne  out  by  the  admissions  of  all  who  have  devoted 
their  time  and  labours  to  the  investigation  of  ecclesiastical 
antiquity. 

The  learned  Dr.  Lardner  is  constrained  to  admit,  that 
"  even  so  late  as  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  the  canon 
of  the  New  Testament  had  not  been  settled  by  any 
authority  that  was  decisive  and  universally  acknowledged  ; 
but  Christian  people  were  at  liberty  to  judge  for  them- 
selves concerning  the  genuineness  of  writings  proposed  to 
them  as  apostolical,  and  to  determine  according  to  evi- 
dence."—Vol.  3,  pp.  54—61. 

We  have  shown  also,  that  the  scriptures  were  not 
entrusted  to  the  hands  of  the  laity.  The  mystical  sense 
which  we  find  by  the  very  earliest  Fathers  to  have  been 
attached  to  them,  is  the  strongest  corroboration  of  those 
positive  testimonies  which  we  have,  that  the  Christian 
people  were  kept  in  the  profoundest  ignorance  of  the 
contents  of  the  sacred  volume.     The   clergy  only,  were 


PREHMlNARy.  109 

held  to  be  the  fit  depositaries  of  those  mystical  legends, 
which  in  the  hands  of  the  common  people,  were  so  liable 
to  be  "  wrested  to  their  own  destruction."  Not  to  insist 
on  the  deplorable  ignorance  of  lay-people  all  over  Chris- 
tendom for  so  many  ages,  during  which,  scarce  any  but 
the  clergy  were  able  to  read  at  all. 

It  would  be  hard  to  authenticate  a  single  instance  of 
the  existence  of  a  translation  of  the  gospels  into  the  vulgar 
tongue,  of  any  country  in  which  Christianity  was  estab- 
lished, at  any  time  within  the  first  four  centuries. 

The  clergy,  or  those  engaged  and  interested  in  the 
business  of  dealing  out  spiritual  edification,  whose  testi- 
mony alone  we  have  on  the  subject,  mutually  criminate 
and  recriminate  each  other,  according  as  they  grasp  or 
lose  their  hold  on  the  ascendancy,  (and  so  are  held  to  be 
orthodox  or  heretical)  with  corrupting  the  scriptures. 

The  epistolary  parts  of  the  New  Testament,  entirely 
independent  and  wholly  irrelevant  of  the  gospels  as  they 
manifestly  are,  may  be  considered  as  the  fairest  and  most 
liberal  specimen  of  the  manner,  in  which  the  stewards  of 
the  mysteries  of  God,  ^'- brought  forth  things  new  and  old,^^* 
according  to  the  spiritual  necessities  of  the  congregations 
which  they  addressed,  while  they  steadily  kept  the  key  of 
the  sacred  treasure,  the  right  of  expounding  it,  and  even 
of  determining  what  it  was,  exclusively  in  their  own  hands. 
Hence,  though  the  gospel  is  spoken  of  in  innumerable 
passages  of  these  epistles,  (written,  as  we  have  seen  they 
were,  before  any  gospels  which  have  come  down  to  us, 
except  those  which  are  deemed  apocryphal,)  there  occurs 
not  in  them,  a  single  quotation  or  text  seeming  to  be  taken 
from  the  gospel  so  spoken  of,  or  sufficient  to  show  what 
the  contents  of  that  gospel,  were. 

Hence  the  authenticity  and  genuineness  of  the  writings 
of  St.  Paul,  and  of  all  those  parts  of  the  narrative  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  which  Paley  in  his  Horce  Paulince 
has  shown,  present  such  striking  coincidences  with  his 
writings,  is  a  wholly  distinct  and  irrelevant  question,  to 
that  of  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the  writings  on 
which  the  Christian  faith  is  founded :  for,  as  all  persons 
must  see  and  admit  at  once,  that  if  the  four  gospels  of 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  which  have  come  down 
to  us,   could  be  shown    to   be  the  compositions   of  such 

*  Every  Scribe  instructed  unto  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  is  like  unto  a  man  that 
is  an  hoaseholder,  which  bringeth  forth  out  of  his  treasure,  things  new  and  old. — 
Matt,  xiii   52. — i.  e.  he  practices  the  art  of  deceiving  the  people. 
11 


110  PRELIMINARY. 

persons,  as  those  to  whom,  under  those  names,  they  are 
ascribed,  and  so  to  be  fairly  and  honourably  genuine  and 
authentic — this,  their  high  and  independent  sanction,  would 
lose  nothing,  nor  even  so  much  as  to  be  brought  into 
suspicion,  by  a  detection  of  the  most  manifest  forgery  and 
imposture  of  those  subordinate,  or,  at  most,  only 
supplementary  writings  :  so  the  genuineness  of  these 
supplementary  writings,  involves  no  presumption  of  the 
genuineness  or  authenticity  of  those  ;  but  rather,  as  being 
admitted  to  have  been  written  earlier  than  our  gospels, 
and  referring  continually  to  gospels  still  earlier  than 
themselves,  which  had  previously  been  the  rule  of  faith 
to  so  many  previously  existing  churches  ;  these  epistles 
supply  one  of  the  most  formidable  arrays  of  proof  that 
can  possibly  be  imagined  against  the  claims  of  our  gospels  ; 
and  having  served  this  effect,  like  expended  ammunition 
that  has  carried  the  volley  to  its  aim,  they  dissipate  and 
break  otT  into  the  void  and  incollectible  inane.  The  gos- 
pels once  convicted  of  being  merely  supposititious 
and  furtive  compositions,  it  is  not  the  genuineness  and 
demonstrable  authenticity  of  any  other  parts  of  the  New 
Testament,  that  its  advocates  will  care  to  defend,  or  its 
enemies  to  impugn.  They  fall  as  a  matter  of  course,  like 
the  provincial  towns  and  fortresses  of  a  conquered  empire, 
to  the  masters  of  the  capital. 

In  this  DiEGEsis,  we  shall  therefore  more  especially 
confine  our  investigation  to  the  claims  of  the  Evangelical 
histories  ;  and  as  our  arguments  must  mainly  be  derived 
from  the  admissions  which  their  best  learned  and  ablest 
advocates  have  made  with  respect  to  them,  we  shall 
throughout,  speak  of  them  and  of  their  contents,  in  the 
tone  and  language  which  courtesy  and  respect  to  the 
feelings  of  those  for  whose  instruction  we  write,  may 
reasonably  claim  from  us  ;  and  which  being  understood  as 
adopted  for  the  convenience  of  argument  only,  can  involve 
no  compromise  of  sincerity. 


CANONS    OP    CRITICISM.  Ill 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

CANONS      OP      CRITICISM. — DATA       OF       CRITICISM. COROLLA- 
RIES.  DR.    LARDNER's    table. 


CANONS    OF    CRITICISM. 

To  he  applied  in  judging  the  comparative  claims  of  the 
Apocryphal  and  Canonical  Gospels. 

1.  The  canonical  and  apocryphal  gospels  are  competi- 
tive, t.  e.  they  are  reciprocally  destructive  of  each  other's 
pretensions. 

2.  If  the  canonical  gospels  are  authentic,  the  apocry- 
phal gospels  are  forgeries. 

3.  If  the  apocryphal  gospels  are  authentic,  the  canonical 
gospels  are  forgeries. 

4.  No  consideration  of  the  comparative  merits  or  cha- 
racters of  the  competitive  works,  can  have  place  in  the 
consideration  of  their  claims  to  authenticity. 

5.  Those  writings,  which  ever  they  be,  or  whether  they 
be  the  better  or  the  worse,  which  can  be  shown  to  have 
been  written  first,  have  the  superior  claim  to  authenticity. 

6.  It  is  impossible  that  those  writings  which  were  the 
first,  could  have  been  written  to  disparage  or  supersede 
those  which  were  written  after. 

7.  Those  writings  which  have  the  less  appearance  of 
art  and  contrivance,  are  the  first. 

8.  Those  writings  which  exhibit  a  more  rhetorical  con- 
struction of  language,  in  the  detail  of  the  same  events, 
with  explications,  suppressions,  and  variations,  whose 
evident  scope  is,  to  render  the  story  more  probable,  are 
the  later  writings. 

9.  Those  writings  whose  existence  is  acknowledged  by 
the  others,  but  which  themselves  acknowledge  not  those 
others,  are  unquestionably  the  first. 

10.  There  could  be  no  conceivable  object  or  purpose  in 
putting  forth  writings  which  were  much  worse,  after  the 
world  were  in  possession  of  such  as  were  much  better. 

11.  If  the  story  were  not  true,  in  the  first  way  of  telling 
it,  no  improvement  in  the  way  of  telling  it,  could  render  it 
true. 

12.  If  those,  who  were  only  improvers  upon  the  original 
history,  have  concealed  that  fact,  and  have  suffered  man- 
kind to  understand  that  the  improvements  were  the  originals; 


11;^  COROLLARIES. 

they  are  gnilty  and  wicked  forgers,  and  never  could  have 
had  any  other  or  better  intention,  than  to  mislead  and  de- 
ceive mankind. 

DATA    OF    CRITICISM. 

To  he  applied  in  judging  the  comparative  claims  of  the 
Apocryphal  and  Canonical  Gospels. 

1 .  It  is  manifest  and  admitted  on  all  hands,  that  the 
apocryphal  gospels  are  very  silly  and  artless  compositions, 
"  full  of  pious  frauds  and  fabulous  wonders." — Mosheim, 
in  loco. 

2.  It  is  manifest,  and  admitted  on  all  hands,  that  the 
canonical  gospels  exhibit  a  more  rhetorical  construction 
of  language  than  the  apocryphal,  and  have  a  highly-wrought 
sublimity  and  grandeur,  the  like  of  which  is  no  where  to 
be  found  in  any  of  the  apocryphal  gospels. 

3.  The  canonical  gospels,  but  more  especially  the 
canonical  epistles,  which  are  admitted  to  have  been 
written  before  the  gospels,  do  in  very  many  places  acknow- 
ledge the  existence  and  prevalence  of  those  writings  which 
are  now  called  apocryphal. 

4.  The  apocryphal  gospels,  as  far  as  we  have  any  traces 
of  them  left,  do  no  where  recognise  or  acknowledge  the 
writings  which  are  now  called  canonical. 

5.  The  apocryphal  gospels,  are  quoted  by  the  very 
earliest  Fathers,  orthodox,  as  well  as  heretical,  as  rever- 
entially as  those  which  we  now  call  canonical. 

6.  The  apocryphal  gospels,  are  admitted  in  the  New 
Testament  itself,  to  have  been  universally  received,  and 
to  have  been  the  guide  and  rule  of  faith  to  the  whole 
Christian  world,  before  any  one  of  our  present  canonical 
gospels,  was  in  existence. 


COROLLARIES. 


1.  Indications  of  time,  discovered  in  those  gospels 
which  were  written  first,  will  indicate  time  relatively,  to 
those  which  were  written  afterwards — exempli  gratid.  It 
being  proved  that  the  legend  A.  was  written  before  the 
legend  C,  there  will  be  proof,  that  events  which  were  con- 
temporary or  antecedent  to  the  writing  of  A.,  were  ante- 
cedent, a  fortiori.,  to  the  writing  of  C. 

2.  Indications  of  the  prevalence  of  a  state  of  things, 
existing  when  the  earlier  gospels  were  written,  will 
indicate   relatively   the   state  of  things,  when  the  latter 


DR.    LARDNER'S    TABLE. 


113 


were  written — exempli  gratia.  It  being  proved 
that  the  earlier  gospels  were  written  under  an  universal 
prevalence  of  the  notions  and  doctrines  of  monkery,  there 
will  be  proof  of  the  monkish  character  necessarily  derived 
to  the  gospels,  derived  from  those  gospels. 


DR.     LARDNER's    table. 

Dr.    Lardner^s   Plan  of  the    Times  and  Places  of  wrding  the  Four 
Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Jipostles. 
(Supplement  to  The  Credibility,  &c.  vol.  i.  p.  iv.) 
Gospels.  Places. 

St.  Matthew's.  Judea,  or  near  it. 

St.  Mark's.  Rome. 

St.  Luke's.  Greece. 

St.  John's.  Ephesus. 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Greece. 


A.  D. 

About  64 
64 

63  or  64 
68 

63  or  64 


^  Table  of  St.  PauVs  Epistles  in  the  Order  of  Time  ;  with  the  Places 

where,  and  the  Times  when,  they  were  written. 

(From  Lardner's  Supplement  to  The  Credibility,  &c.  vol.  ii.  p.  iv.) 

d.  D. 

52 

52 

Near  the  end  of  52 

or  the  beginning  of  53 

The  beginning  of  56 

56 

Before  the  end  of  56 

About  October  57 

About  February  58 

About  April  61 

About  May  61 

Before  the  end  of  62 

Before  the  end  of  62 

Before  the  end  of  62 

In  the  spring  of  63 

Epistles,  and  the  Revelation  ,  ivith 
Thnes  when,  they  were  ivritten. 
The  Credibility,  &c.  vol.  iii.  p.  iv.) 

Places.  Jl   D. 

Judea.  61,  or  the  beginning  of  62 
Rome.  64 

Ephesus.  About  80 

Ephesus.       Between  89  and  90 
Unknown.  64  or  65 

Patmos  or  Ephesus.       95  or  96 


Epistles. 

Places. 

1  Thessalonians. 

Corinth. 

2  Thessalonians. 

Corinth. 

Galatians. 

Corinth  or  Ephesus. 

1  Corinthians. 

Ephesus. 

1  Timothy. 

Macedonia, 

Titus. 

Macedonia,  or  near  it. 

2  Corinthians. 

Macedonia. 

Romans. 

Corinth. 

Ephesians. 

Rome. 

2  Timothy. 

Rome. 

Philippians. 

Rome. 

Colossians. 

Rome. 

Philemon. 

Rome. 

Hebrews. 

Rome  or  Italy. 

A  Table  of  the   Seven  Catholic 
the  Places  where,  and  the 
(From  Lardner's  Supplement  to 
Epistles,  Sfc. 
The  Epistles  of  St.  James. 
The  two  Epistles  of  St.  Peter. 
St.  John's  first  Epistle. 
His  second  and  third  Epistles. 
The  Epistle  of  St.  Jude. 
The  Revelation  of  St.  John. 
11* 


114  •       OF    THE    FOUR    GOSPELS    IN    GENERAL. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

OF    THE    FOUR    GOSPELS,    IN    GENERAL. 

The  ordinary  notion,  that  the  four  gospels  were  written 
by  the  persons  whose  names  they  bear,  and  that  they  have 
descended  to  us  from  original  autographs  of  Matthew  and 
John,  immediate  disciples,  and  of  Mark  and  Luke,  cotem- 
poraries  and  companions  of  Christ  ;  in  like  manner  as  the 
writings  of  still  more  early  poets  and  historians  have  des- 
cended to  us,  from  the  pens  of  the  authors  to  whom  they 
are  attributed,  is  altogether  untenable.  It  has  been 
entirely  surrendered  by  the  most  able  and  ingenuous 
Christian  writers,  and  will  no  longer  be  maintained  by  any 
but  those  whose  zeal  outruns  their  knowledge,  and  whose 
recklessness  and  temerity  of  assertion,  can  serve  only  to 
dishonour  and  betray  the  cause  they  so  injudiciously  seek 
to  defend. 

The  surrender  of  a  position  which  the  world  has  for 
ages  been  led  to  consider  impregnable,  by  the  admission 
of  all  that  the  early  objection  of  the  learned  Christian 
Bishop,  Faustus,  the  Manichean,  implied,  when  he 
pressed  Augustine  with  that  bold  challenge  which  Augus- 
tine was  unable  to  answer,  that,*  "It  is  certain  that 
the  New  Testament  was  not  written  by  Christ  himself,  nor 
by  his  apostles,  but  a  long  while  after  them,  by  some  un- 
known persons,  who  lest  they  should  not  be  credited  when 
they  wrote  of  affairs  they  were  little  acquainted  with, 
affixed  to  their  works  the  names  of  apostles,  or  of  such  as 
were  supposed  to  have  been  their  companions,  asserting 
that  what  they  had  written  themselves,  was  written 
ACCORDING  TO  those  pcrsous  to  whom  they  ascribed  it." 

This  admission  has  not  been  held  to  be  fatal  to  the 
claims  of  divine  relation,  nor  was  it  held  to  be  so  even  by 
the  learned  Father  himself  who  so  strenuously  insisted  on 
it,  since  he  declares  his  own  unshaken  faith  in  Christ's 
mystical  crucifixion,  notwithstanding. 

♦  Nee  ab  ipso  scriptum  constat,  nee  ab  ejus  apostolis  sed  longo  post  tempore  a 
quibusdam  incerti  nominis  viris,  qui  ne  sibi  noa  liaberetur  fides  ecribcntibus  qas 
nescirent,  partim  apostolorum,  partim  eorum  qui  apoatoios  secuti  viderentur 
nomina  scriptorum  suorum  frontibus  indiderunt,  asseverantes  secundum  bob, 
se  scripsisse  qua;  scripserunt. — Quoted  by  Lardner,  vol.  2,  p.  221. — See  Chap- 
ter 7,  p.  66,  of  this  DiEGEsis. 


OP    THE    FOUR    GOSPELS    IN    GENERAL.  115 

Adroitly  handled  as  the  passage  has  been  by  the  in- 
genuity of  theolog-ians,  it  has  been  made  rather  to  subserve 
the  cause  of  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion,  than 
to  injure  it.  Since  though  it  be  admitted,  that  the  Chris- 
tian world  has  "  all  along  been,  nnder  a  delusion^''  in  this 
respect,  and  has  held  these  writings  to  be  of  higher 
authority  than  they  really  are  ;  yet  the  writings  themselves 
and  their  authors,  are  innocent  of  having  contributed  to 
that  delusion,  and  never  bore  on  them,  nor  in  them,  any 
challenge  to  so  high  authority  as  the  mistaken  piety  of 
Christians  has  ascribed  to  them,  but  did  all  along  profess 
no  more  than  to  have  been  written,  as  Faustus  testifies, 
not  BY,  but  ACCORDING  to  Matthcw,  Mark,  Luke,  and 
John  ;  and  by  persons  of  whom  indeed  it  is  not  known 
who  nor  what  they  were,  nor  was  it,  of  any  consequence 
that  it  should  be,  after  the  general  acquiescence  of  the 
church  had  established  the  sufficient  correctness  of  the 
compilations  they  had  made. 

And  here  the  longo  post  tempore,  {the  great  ivhile  after,) 
is  a  favourable  presumption  of  the  sufficient  opportunity 
that  all  persons*  had,  of  knowing  and  being  satisfied,  that 
the  gospels  which  the  church  received,  were  indeed  all 
that  they  purported  to  be  ;  that  is,  faithful  narrations  of 
the  life  and  doctrines  of  Christ,  according  to  what  could  be 
collected  from  the  verbal  accounts  which  his  apostles  had 
given,  or  by  tradition  been  supposed  to  have  given,  and  as 
such,  "  worthy  of  all  acceptation.''^ 

While  the  objection  of  Faustus,  becomes  from  its  own 
nature  the  most  indubitable  and  inexceptionable  evidence, 
carrying  us  up  to  the  very  early  age,  the  fourth  century, 
in  which  he  wrote,'  with  a  demonstration,  that  the  gospels 
were  then  universally  known  and  received,  under  the  pre- 
cise designation,  and  none  other,  than  that  with  which 
they  have  come  down  to  us,  even  as  the  gospels  respect- 
ively, according  to  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John. 

Of  course  there  can  be  no  occasion  to  pursue  the  inquiry 
into  the  authenticity  of  the  Christian  scriptures,  lower 
down  than  the  fourth  century. 

1.  Tliough,  in  that  age,  there  was  no  established  canon 
or  authoritative  declaration,    that  such  and  none  other, 

*  By  all  persons,  understanding  strictly  all  parsons,  for  the  common  people 
were  nobody,  and  never  at  any  time  had  any  voice,  judgment,  or  option,  in  the 
business  of  religion,  but  always  believed,  that  which  their  godfathers  and  godmo- 
thers did  promise  and  vow  that  they  should  believe.  God  or  devil,  and  any  scrip- 
tures their  masters  pleased,  vvere  always  all  one  to  them. 


116  OF    THE    FOUR    GOSPELS    IN    GENERAL. 

than  those  which  have  come  down  to  us,  were  the  books 
which  contained  the  Christian  rule  of  faith. 

2.  And  thoug-h  "•  no  manuscript  of  these  writings  now 
in  existence  is  prior  to  the  sixth  century,  and  various 
readings  which,  as  appears  from  the  quotations  of  the 
Fathers,  were  in  the  text  of  the  Greek  Testament,  ar6  to 
be  found  in  none  of  the  manuscripts  which  are  at  present 
remaining." — JVIichaelis,  vol.  2,  p.  160. 

3.  And  though  many  passages  which  are  now  found  in 
these  scriptures  were  not  contained  in  any  ancient  copies 
whatever  ; 

4.  And  though  "in  our  common  editions  of  the  Greek 
Testament,  are  many  readings,  which  exist  not  in  a  single 
manuscript,  but  are  founded  on  mere  conjecture." — 
Marsh's  MichaeUs,  vol  2,  p.  496. 

5.  And  though  "it  is  notorious,  that  the  orthodox 
charge  the  heretics  with  corrupting  the  text,  and  that  the 
heretics  recriminate  upon  the  orthodox." — Unitarian  JVew 
Version,  p.  121. 

6.  And  though  "  it  is  an  undoubted  fact,  that  the  here- 
tics were  in  the  right  in  many  points  of  criticism,  where 
the  Fathers  accused  them  of  wilful  corruption." — Bp. 
Man-sh,  vol  2,  p.  362. 

7.  And  though  "  it  is  notorious,  that  forged  writings 
under  the  names  of  the  Apostles  were  in  circulation 
almost  from  the  apostolic  age." — See  2  Thess.  ii.  2,  quoted 
in  Unitarian  JVeio  Version.* 

8.  And  though  "  not  long  after  Christ's  ascension  into 
heaven,  several  histories  of  his  life  and  doctrines,  fall  of 
pious  frauds  and  fabulous  wonders,  were  composed  by 
persons  whose  intentions,  perhaps,  were  not  bad,  but 
whose  writings  discovered  the  greatest  superstition  and 
ignorance." — Mosheim,  vol.  1,  p.  109. 

9.  And  though,  says  the  great  Scaliger,  "  They  put  into 
their  scriptures  whatever  they  thought  would  serve  their 
purpose,  "f 

10.  And  though  "  notwithstanding  those  twelve  known 
infallible  and  faithful  judges  of  controversy  (the  twelve 
Apostles),  there  were  as  many  and  as  damnable  heresies 
crept  in,  even  in  the  apostolic  age,  as  in  any  other  age, 

*  "  Abnost  from  the  apostolic  age!"  Why  the  text  itself,  if  it  prove  any 
thing,  proves  that  such  forged  writings  were  in  existence  absolutely  in  the 
apostolic  age,  and  among  the  apostles  themselves. 

t  Omnia  quee  Christianiismo  ccnducere  putabant  bibliis  suis  interseruerunt. 
— Tindalio   citante. 


OP    THE    FOUR    GOSPELS    IN    GENERAL.  117 

perhaps,  during  the  same  space  of  time." — Reeve's  Preli- 
minary Discourse  to  the  Commonitory  of  Vincentius  Lirinen- 
sis,  p.  190. 

11.  And  though  there  were  in  the  manuscripts  of  the 
New  Testament,  at  the  time  of  editing  the  last  printed 
copies  of  the  Greek  text,  upwards  of  one  hundred  and 
THIRTY  THOUSAND  various  readings." — Unitarian  JVew  Ver- 
sion^ p.  2.2. 

12.  And  though  "  the  confusion  unavoidable  in  these 
versions  (the  ancient  Latin,  from  which  all  our  European 
versions  are  derived),  had  arisen  to  such  a  height,  that 
St.  Jerome,  in  his  Preface  to  the  Gospels,  complains  that 
no  one  copy  resembled  another." — Michaelis,  vol.  2.  p.  119. 

13.  And  though  the  gospels  fatally  contradict  each 
other  ;  that  is,  in  several  important  particulars,  they  do  so 
to  such  an  extent,  as  no  ingenuity  of  supposition  has  yet 
been  able  to  reconcile  :  only  the  most  stupid  and  ignorant 
of  Methodist  parsons,  and  canting,  arrogant  fanatics,  any 
longer  attempting 'to  reconcile  them,  after  Marsh,  Micha- 
elis, and  the  most  learned  critics,  have  struck,  and  owned 
the  conquest.* 

14.  And  though  the  difference  of  character  between  the 
three  first  gospels,  and  that  ascribed  to  St.  John,  is  so 
flagrantly  egregious,  that  the  most  learned  Christian  di- 
vines, and  profoundest  scholars,  have  frankly  avowed  that 
the  Jesus  Christ  of  St.  John,  is  a  wholly  different  character 
from  the  Jesus  Christ  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke  ;  and 
that  their  account  and  his  should  both  be  true,  is  flatly 
impossible. f 

15.  And  though  such  was  the  idolatrous  adulation  paid 
to  the  authority  of  Origen,  that  emendations  of  the  text 
which  were  but  suggested  by  him,  were  taken  in  as  part 
of  the  New  Testament ;  though  he  himself  acknowledged 
that  they  were  supported  by  the  authority  of  no  manu- 
script whatever. — JMarsh,  in  loco. 

16.  And  though,  even  so  late  as  the  period  of  the 
Reformation,  we  have  whole  passages  which  have  been 
thrust  into  the  text,  and  thrust  out,  just  as  it  served  the 
turn  which  the  Protestant  tricksters  had  to  serve. 

*  See  Bishop  Marsh's  Surrender,  quoted  in  chapter  17. 

t  Si  forte  accidisset,  ut  Johannis  Evangelium  per  octodecim  secula  priora 
prorsus  ignotum  jacuisset,  et  nostris  demum  temporibus,  in  medium  productum 
esset  omnes  haud  dubie  uno  ore  confiterentur  Jesum  a  Johanne  descriptum  longe 
alium  esse  ac  illium  Matthaei,  Marci,  et  Lucae,  nee  ulramque  descriptionem  simul 
veram  esse  posse. — Carol.  Theoph.  Bretschneider  Probab.  Lipsiee,  1820. 


118  OF    THE    FOUR    GOSPELS    IN    GENERAL. 

17.  And  though  we  have  on  record  the  most  indubitably 
historical  evidence,  of  a  general  censure  and  correction 
of  the  Gospels  having  been  made  at  Constantinople,  in 
the  year  506,  by  order  of  the  emperor  Anastasius.* 

18.  And  though  we  have  like  unquestionable  historical 
evidence,  of  measureless  and  inappreciable  alterations  of 
the  same,  having  been  made  by  our  own  Lanfranc,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  accom- 
modating them  to  the  faith  of  the  orthodox,  f 

19.  And  though  there  are  other  passages  retained  and 
circulated  as  part  of  the  word  of  God,  which  are  known 
and  admitted  by  all  parties  to  be  wilful  interpolations, 
and  downright  forgery  and  falsehood. 

20.  And  though  we  see  with  our  own  eyes,  and  witness 
in  our  own  experience — as  per  example,  in  the  Athanasian 
Creed — that  nothing  could  be  so  absurd,  so  false,  so  wick- 
ed, but  that  it  would  be  retained  and  supported  by  our 
Christian  clergy,  on  the  selfsame  principle  as  that  on 
which  they  support  all  the  rest  on't, — even  because  it  sup- 
ports them ! 

Yet,  after  all,  we  shall  find  thousands  of  interested  and 
aspiring  pedants,  pretending  to  reconcile  what  cannot  be 
reconciled,  to  prove  what  cannot  be  proved,  and  to  show 
that  to  be  true,  which  every  sense  and  faculty  of  man 
attests  and  demonstrates  to  be  false.  It  is,  however,  on 
the  ground  of  inspiration,  that  they  ultimately  rest  their 
pretensions  :  it  was  on  that  ground  that  the  Tower  of  Ba- 
bel was  built  ;  that  we  leave  them  ;  but  on  the  ground  of 
history,  criticism,  reason,  and  natural  evidence,  they  have 
no  rest  for  the  sole  of  their  foot.  I  recommend  them  to 
treat  us  with  contempt,  and  to  send  us  to  Coventry,  and 
not  to  Oakham. 

*  Here  it  is.  "  Messala  V.  C.  consule,  Constantinopoli,  jubente  Anastasio 
Imperatore,  sancta  evangelia,  tanquam  ab  idiotis  evangelistis  composita, 
reprehenduntur  et  emendantur." — Victor  Tununensis,  Cave's  Historia  Lite- 
raria,  vol.  1.  p.  415 — i.  e.  "  The  illustrious  Messala  being  Consul;  hy  the 
command  of  the  Emperor  Jlnastasius,  the  holy  Gospels,  as  having  been 
written  by  idiot  evangelists,  ars  censured  and  corrected." — Victor,  Bishop 
of  Tunis  ill  Africa.  ' 

t  See  Beausobre,  quoted  in  the  Manifesto  of  the  Christian  Evidence  Society  ; 
and  thus,  and  the  preceding  extract  vindicated,  in  the  author's  Syntagma,  against 
the  vituperations  of  the  evangehcal  Dr.  Jolin  Pye  Smith,  in  locis. 


ORIGIN    OP    THE    THREE    FIRST    GOSPELS. 


119 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


ON   THE    ORIGIN    OP    OUR    THREE    FIRST    CANONICAL 
GOSPELS. 


That  our  three  first  canonical  gospels  have  a  remarkable 
similarity  to  each  other  ;  and  that  the  three  first  evan- 
gelists {sc.  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke)  frequently  agree, 
not  only  in  relating  the  same  things  in  the  same  manner, 
but  likewise  in  the  same  words,  is  a  fact  of  which  every 
one  must  be  convinced  who  has  read  a  Greek  Harmony 
of  the  Gospels.  In  some  cases,  all  the  Evangelists  agree 
word  for  word,  as  thus  : 

Matthew,  xxiv.  33.    I         Mark,  xiii.  20. 
Now    learn   a   parable        Now    learn   a   parable 
of  the  fig-tree  ;  when  his  of  the  fig-tree  ;  when  her 


branch  is  yet  tender,  and 
putteth  forth  leaves,  ye 
know  that  summer  is 
nigh  :  so  likewise,  ye, 
when  ye  shall  see  all 
these  things,  know  that 
it  is  near,  even  at  the 
doors.  Verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  this  generation  shall 
not  pass,  till  all  these 
things  be  fulfilled.  Hea- 
ven and  earth  shall  pass 
away,  but  my  words  shall 
not  pass  away. 


Luke,  xxi.  31. 
Behold  the  fig-tree, 
and  all  the  trees  ;  when 
they  now  shoot  forth,  ye 
see  and  know  of  your 
ownselves,  that  summer 
is  now  nigh  at  hand  :  so 
likewise,  ye,  when  ye 
see  these  things  come  to 
pass,  know  ye  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  nigh 
at  hand.  Verily,  I  say 
unto  you,  this  genera- 
tion shall  not  pass  away, 
till  all  be  fulfilled.  Hea- 
ven and  earth  shall  pass 
away,  but  my  words  shall 
not  pass  away. 


branch  is  yet  tender,  and 
putteth  forth  leaves,  ye 
know  that  summer  is 
near  :  so  ye,  in  like  man- 
ner, when  ye  shall  see 
these  things  come  to 
pass,  know  that  it  is 
nigh,  even  at  the  doors. 
Verily,  I  say  unto  you, 
that  this  generation  shall 
not  pass,  till  all  these 
things  be  done.  Heaven 
and  earth  shall  pass  away, 
but  my  words  shall  not 
pass  away. 

These  phsenomena  are  inexplicable  on  any  other  than 
one  of  the  two  following  suppositions,  either  that  St.  Mat- 
thew, St.  Mark,  and  Saint  Luke,  copied  from  each  other, 
or  that  all  three  drew  from  a  common  source. 

In  Mark  xiii.  13  to  32,  there  is  such  a  close  verbal  agree- 
ment, for  twenty  verses  together,  with  the  parallel  pas- 
sage in  St.  Matthew's  gospel,  that  the  texts  of  St.  Matthew 
and  St.  Mark  might  pass  for  one  and  the  same  text. 

"  The  most  eminent  critics  are  at  present  decidedly  of 
opinion  that  one  of  the  two  suppositions  must  necessarily 
be  adopted — either  that  the  three  evangelists  copied  from 
each  other,  or  that  all  the  three  drew  from  a  common 
source,  and  that  the  notion  of  an  absolute  independence, 
in  respect  to  the  composition  of  our  three  first  gospels,  is 
no  longer  tenable.    Yet  the  question,  which  of  these  two 


120  ORIGIN    OF    THE    THREE    FIRST    GOSPELS. 

suppositions  oug-ht  to  be  adopted  in  preference  to  the  other, 
is  still  in  agitation  ;  and  each  of  them  has  such  able  advo- 
cates, that  if  we  were  guided  by  the  authority  of  names, 
the  decision  would  be  extremely  difficult."* 

Difficult  as  the  decision  may  be  ;  to  the  great  end  of  this 
general  view  of  the  evidence  affecting  the  claims  of  divine 
revelation,  it  is  utterly  indifferent  ;  since  either  alternative 
affords  results  equally  conclusive,  and  equally  militant 
against  the  character  of  those  through  whose  hands  these 
writings  have  come  down  to  us.  In  either  alternative, 
they  are  not  original  writings ;  they  are  not  what  they  pur- 
port to  be  ;  and  the  writers  stand  convicted,  at  least,  of 
negative  imposture,  (if  indeed  the  imposture  is  attribu- 
table to  them,)  in  passing  their  compositions  off  as  origi- 
nal, and  attempting  to  conceal  from  us  the  help  they 
borrowed  from  each  other,  or  what  the  common  source 
was  from  which  they  each  of  ihhm  drew. 

Le  Clerc,  in  his  Historia  Critica,  published  at  Amster- 
dam, A.  D.  1716,  seems  to  have  been  the  first  among 
modern  divines  who  ventured  to  put  forth  the  startling 
supposition  that  these  three  gospels  were  in  part  derived 
from  either  similar  or  the  self-same  sources. f 

This  opinion  lay  dormant  upwards  of  sixty  years,  till  it 
was  revived  by  Michaelis,  in  the  third  edition  of  his  Intro- 
duction, published  1777.  Dr.  Semler,  however,  was  the 
first  writer  who  made  it  known  to  the  public  that  our  three 
first  evangelists  used  in  common  a  Hebrew  or  Syriac 
document  or  documents,  from  which  they  derived  the 
principal  materials  of  their  history  ;  in  a  treatise  published 
at  Halle,  in  1783  ;  but  he  has  delivered  it  only  in  a  cur- 
sory manner  ;  and  as  the  thought  was  then  new,  he  does 
not  appear  to  have  had  any  very  determinate  opinion  on 
the  subject.  The  probability  is,  that  he  dared  not  at  that 
time  have  ventured  to  put  forth  a  determinate  opinion  on 
the  subject.  We  find  Bishop  Marsh  himself,  even  in  this 
learned  dissertation,  the  highest  authority  I  could  adduce 
on  the  subject,  confessing  "  that  the  easiest  and  the  most 
prudent  part  that  he  could  take,  would  be  merely  to  relate 
the  opinions  of  others,  without  hazarding  an  opinion  of  his 
own."  There  was  little  fear  that  so  high  a  dignitary  of 
the  church  would,  for  any  opinion  he  might  hazard,  be 
liable  to  be  dealt  with  as  an  humbler  heretic  of  his  com- 

*  Bishop  Marsh's  Michaelis,  vol.  3,  part  2,  p.  170. 

t  (iuidiii  credanius  tria  hsec  evangelia  partim  petita  ease  ex  similibus,  aut  iisdem 
fontibus. — Le  Clerc,  Hist.  Crit.  i/i  loco. 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    THREE    FIRST    GOSPELS.  121 

munion.  The  episcopal .  palace  of  Peterborough  is  far 
enough  from  Oakham  Gaol  ;  yet,  for  all  that,  a  bishop 
will  never  be  found  wanting  of  the  virtue  of  prudence. 

The  express  declaration  of  Eusebius,  that  the  Thera- 
peutee  described  by  Philo  were  Christians,  and  that  their 
sacred  scriptures  were  our  Gospels,  after  having  lain 
dormant  for  fourteen  hundred  years,  now  at  length  rises, 
upon  the  admissions  of  these  learned  divines,  into  the 
dimensions  of  its  real  importance.  From  these  sacred 
legends,  of  a  sect  so  long  anterier  to  the  epocha  assigned 
to  Christ  and  his  apostles,  our  Christian  scriptures  have 
been  plagiarised ;  and  the  first  position  of  the  Manifesto 
of  the  Christian  Evidence  Society,  for  the  public  main- 
tenance of  which  the  author  of  this  Diegesis  endures  the 
fate  of  felony  and  crime,  is  nothing  more  than  had  in 
other  words  been  previously  published,  by  the  learned 
bishop  in  whose  diocese  he  is  a  prisoner. 

'•'  Conunittunt  eadem  divejso  crimina  fato 

Die  crucem  sceleris  pretium  tulit,  hie  diadema."* 

Eusebius,  however,  is  not  alone,  even  among  the  ancients, 
in  betraying  the  fact  of  this  great  plagiarism.  Hints 
and  inuendoes  occur  in  a  thousand  places,  pointing  out 
the  same  fact,  to  those  who  were  entitled  by  learning  and 
office  to  be  intrusted  with  what  Origen  significantly  calls 
the  Arcana  Imperii,  or  secrets  of  the  management  ;  while, 
as  the  custody  of  the  sacred  books  was  never  committed 
to  the  people,  and  they  were  expressly  forbidden  to  exa- 
mine into  the  foundations  of  their  faith,  nothing  was  more 
facile,  nothing  more  practicable,  than  for  the  heads  and 
rulers  of  the  church  to  modify  and  adopt  those  previously 
existing  romances,  whose  effect  in  subduing  the  reason  of 
mankind  had  been  found  by  long  experience,  and  which 
were  too  ancient  to  be  found  out,  too  sacred  to  be  sus- 
pected, and  too  mysterious  to  be  understood. 

Epiphanius,  as  long  ago  as  the  fourth  century,  speak- 
ing of  the  verbal  harmony  of  the  gospels,  which  he  calls 
their  preaching  harmoniously  and  alike,-f  accounts  for  it  by 
I  saying,  that  they  were  drawn  from  the  same  fountain  ;^ 
though  he  has  not  explained  what  he  meant  by  the  same 
fountain. 


*  "  They  commit  the  same  things  with  a  different  fate  :  one  hath  borne  the 
mitre  as  the  price  of  his  exploit — the  other,  the  cross, 
t  Svncpwviag  xai  tfftu?  xijQv^ai. — Haeres    51.  6, 
t  Oxi  t^  avTjjj  TJjs  Tiijyjjs  wQuijirai. 


122  niemeyer's  hypothesis. 

lessing's  hypothesis. 
But  it  was  in  the  year  1784,  in  the  posthumous  works  of 
Lessing,  published  at  Berlin,  that  the  hypothesis  of  a  com- 
mon Syriac  or  Chaldee  origin  was  decidedly  maintained, 
and  put  forth  to  the  world  with  much  more  precision  than 
the  fortitude  of  Semler  had  ventured.  Lessing  was  dead 
first.  It  is  not  from  living  authors,  or  from  those  who 
wish  to  live,  that  the  world  has  to  look  for  important 
discoveries  in  theology.  Those  who  offer  truth  to  the 
Christian  community,  must  ever  provide  for  their  escape 
from  the  consequences  of  doing  so. 

niemeyer's  hypothesis. 

Six  years  afterwards  (in  1 790) ,  the  important  truth  was 
taken  up,  and  allowed  to  be  spoken,  in  consequence  of 
meeting  the  approbation  of  Dr.  Niemeyer,  Professor  of 
Divinity  in  Halle,  who,  in  his  Conjectures  in  illustration 
of  the  Silence  of  most  of  the  Writers  of  the  JSTew  Testament^ 
concerning  the  beginning  of  the  Life  of  Jesus  Christ,  says, 
that  "  If  credit  be  due  to  the  authority  of  the  Fathers, 
there  existed  a  most  ancient  narration  of  the  life  of  Jesus 
Christ,  written  especially  for  those  inhabitants  of  Palestine 
who  became  Christians  from  among  the  Jews."* — "  This 
narrative  is  distinguished  by  various  names,  as  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  Twelve  Apostles — the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews — the 
Gospel  according  to  Mattheio — the  Gospel  of  the  Jfaza- 
renes  ;  and  this  same,  unless  all  things  deceive  me,  is  to 
be  considered  as  the  fountain  from  which  other  writings 
of  this  sort  have  derived  their  origin,  as  streams  from  the 
spring,  "t 

Dr.  Niemeyer  further  adds,  in  a  passage  to  which 
Bishop  Marsh  invokes  our  especial  attention,  that 
I  "  Since    this  book  of  which  we  speak  contained   the 

*  Jam  si  fides  habenda  est  patrum  auctoritate  antiquissinia  extitit  de  vita  Jesa 
Christ!  narratio,  in  usuin  eorum,  qui  e  Judaeis  Christiani  facti  erant,  PaUestinen- 
sium  imprimis  scripta. 

t  Haec  narratio  variis  nominibus  insignitur,  quo  pertinent  Evangelium  duodecinfi 
Apostolorum,  Hebraeorum,  NazarEomm,  secundum  Matthsum  :  eademque,  nisi 
me  omnia  fallunt,  pro  fonle  habenda  est,  e  quo  reliqua  id  genua  scripta  taiv- 
quam  rivuli  originem  suam  duxerunt. 

%  Cum  vero  contineret  hie  Uber,  do  quo  quoerimua  Apostolorum  de  vita  Christi 
narrationes,  non  modo  propter  argunienti  gravitatem  credibiie  est,  ejus  exemplaria 
in  plurimorum  christianorum  manibus  fuisse,  quorum  maxime  debabat  interesse 
divinam  magistri  sui  imaginem  intueri,  verum  etiam  singulis  exemplaribus  ea, 
quae  quisque  aliunde  de  Christo  comperta  haberet,  tanquam  anctaria  adscript* 
esse  :  ita  quidem  ut  vel  Apostolorum  asvo,  plures  extiterunt  horam  memorabilium 
recensiones. 

Quod  si  sumitur  ;  multa  facillime   explicari  possunt,  qu»,  sublata  ista  hypo- 


•■^li. 


niemeyer's  hypothesis.  123 

narrations  of  the  apostles  concerning  the  life  of  Christ, 
not  only  is  it  credible  from  the  importance  of  its  argu- 
ment, that  copies  of  it  should  have  been  in  the  hands  of 
the  generality  of  Christians,  whom  it  ought  chiefly  to  have 
concerned  to  behold  the  divine  image  of  their  master,  but 
that  in  each  particular  copy,  would  be  written  as  a  sort 
of  supplement,  whatever  any  one  had  found  to  be  true 
concerning  Christ  from  other  sources  :  so  that  indeed, 
even  in  the  age  of  the  apostles,  there  might  have  been 
several  selections  of  these  memoirs  :  which  if  it  be  ad- 
mitted ;  many  things  can  be  most  easily  explained,  which 
otherwise  render  the  origin  of  our  gospels  t^eri/ o6sc«re.  In 
the  first  place,  the  clear  agreement  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and 
Luke,  in  many  parts  of  their  gospels,  not  only  in  the  re- 
semblance of  the  subjects  of  which  they  treat,  but  in  the 
use  of  the  same  words ^  is  understood.  Make  a  hundred 
men  to  have  been  witnesses  of  the  same  fact ;  make  the 
same  hundred  to  have  written  accounts  of  what  they  saw  ; 
they  will  agree  in  matter,  they  will  differ  in  words  : — nor 
will  any  one  say  that  it  happened  by  accident,  if  even 
three  or  four  out  of  their  number,  had  so  related  the  story, 
as  to  answer  word  for  word,  through  a  course  of  many 
periods. 

"  But  who  is  ignorant,  that  such  an  agreement  is  to  be 
observed  repeatedly  in  the  commentaries  of  the  Evange- 
lists ?  But  this  is  not  wonderful  :  since  they  drew  from  the 
same  fountain.  They  translated  the  memorable  sayings  and 
actions  of  Christ,  which  were  written  in  .Hebrew,  into 
Greek,  for  the  use  of  those  who  spoke  the  Greek  language. 
But,  how   came   it  that  Luke   should   follow  a  different 

thesi,  admodum  obscuras  reddunt  evangeliorum  nostrorum  origines.  Primum 
iotelligitur  consensus  Matthsei,  Marci,  Lucee,  per  plures  evangeliorum  suorum 
partes,  non  modo  in  rerum  quas  tractunt  similitudine,  verum  etiani  verborum 
conspiratione  perspicuus  :  Fac  centum  homines  ejusdem  facti  fuisse  testes  ;  Fac 
centum  ipsos  quod  viderint  mandasse  Uteris  :  Consentient  re,  different  verbis  : 
nee  quisquam  casu  factum  esse  judicabit,  si  vel  tres  aut  quatuor  ex  eorum  numero 
rem  ita  narraverint,  ut  per  plurimarum  periodorum  seriem,  verbum  verbo  res- 
pondeat. Hoc  vero  quis  ignorat  sexcenties  observari  in  evangel istarum  com- 
ment ar  Us  7  Atqui  hoc  mirum  non  est.  JVempe  ex  eodem  hauserunt  fonte. 
Memorabilia  Christi  et  dicta  et  facta  Hebraice  scripta,  in  usum  Graece  loquentium, 
Graeca  fecerunt. 

Qui  vero  factum  est,  ut  Lucas  alium  sequeretur  rerum  ordinem,  quara  Mat- 
thteus  ;  ut  in  Marco  plura  desiderentur,  in  MattlwRo,  cujus  vestigia  premere 
videtur  obvia  ?  Ut  in  singulis  partibus,  alter  altero  verbosior,  in  observandis 
rebus  niinutis,  dUigentior  reperiatur  ?  Quoniam,  ut  diximus,  mixdiiaii  ex empla- 
rium,  quae  ista  Apostolorum.  ylTroftrfvfiuTa  complectebantur  diversitas. 
Deinde,  quoniam  liberum  fuit  iis,  qui  ex  istis  Comnientariis  sua  evangelia  cob- 
cinnabantj  addere  quae  sibi  aliunde  innotuissent,  resecare  quae  vel  sublestse  fidei,  vel 
utilia  lectoribus,  et  a  suo  scribendi  consilio  remota  judicarent. 


124  eichhorn's  hypothesis. 

arrangement  from  Matthew  ?  That  many  things  should  be 
wanting  in  Mark,  that  are  readily  to  be  met  with  in  Mat- 
thew, whose  steps  he  seems  to  follow  ?  That  in  particular 
parts,  one  should  be  found  more  wordy  than  the  other ; 
in  observing  minute  circumstances  more  diligent  ? — Why  ! 
Because  as  we  have  said,  there  really  was  a  wonderful 
diversity  in  the  copies  which  contained  those  memoirs  op 
THE  APOSTLES  :  and,  secondly,  because  it  was  optionable 
for  those  who  composed  their  gospels,  out  of  those  com- 
mentaries, to  add  whatever  they  knew  of  the  matter  from 
other  sources,  and  to  cut  o/f  whatever  they  considered  to  be 
of  equivocal  credibility,  or  less  useful  to  readers  and  aliene 
from  their  object  in  writing." 


THE     QUESTION     PROPOSED    IN     THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    GOTTIN- 
GEN,    A.    D.    1793. 

In  1793,  the  theological  faculty  at  Gottingen,  proposed 
for  the  prize  dissertation  the  question  ; — What  was  the  ori- 
gin of  the  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John  9  From 
what  fountains  did  the  authors  of  those  gospels  draxo  ?  For 
what  readers  in  particular,  and  with  what  aim  did  they  each 
write,  and  how,  and  at  tohat  time  came  it  to  pass,  that  those  four 
gospels  acquired  a  greater  authority,  than  that  of  the  gospels 
ivhich  are  called  apocryphal;  and  became  canonical.''''  The 
prize  was  adjudged  to  Mr.  Halfeld,  who  maintained  that 
the  Evangelists  extracted  their  gospels  from  different 
documents.  For  proposing  a  similar  question  in  London, 
in  the  year  1828,  the  author  of  this  Diegesis  obtained  the 
prize,  of  a  year's  imprisonment,  in  Oakham  Gaol,  in  the 
County  of  Rutland. 


DR.    eichhorn's    HYPOTHESIS. 

In  his  dissertation,  On  the  Origin  of  our  Three  First 
Gospels,  printed  in  1 794,  in  the  fifth  volume  of  his  Universal 
Library,  of  Biblical  Literature,*  by  far  the  most  important 
of  all  the  Essays  which  have  appeared  on  this  subject, 
Dr.  Eichhorn,  supposes  that  only  one  document  was  used, 
by  all  three  Evangelists,  but  he  supposes  that  various 
additions,  had  been  made  in  various  copies  of  it,  and  that 
three  different  copies,  thus  variously  enriched,  were  res- 
pectively used  by  our  three  first  Evangelists,  independently 

*  The  German  title  is  Allgemeine  Bibliothek  der  Bibliachen  Literatur  ;  a  peri- 
odical publication. 


beausobre's  hypothesis.  125 

of  each  other.  According  to  Eichhorn's  hypothesis,  the 
proprietors  of  different  copies  of  this  document,  added  in 
the  margin,  those  circumstances,  which  had  come  to  their 
knowledge,  but  which  were  unnoticed  by  the  author  or 
authors  of  the  documents  ;  and  these  marginal  additions 
were  taken  by  subsequent  transcribers  into  the  text. 

Eichhorn  is  decidedly  of  opinion,  that  the  original 
document,  of  which  the  Evangelists  used  various  copies, 
was  written,  not  in  Greek,  but  in  Hebrew,  or  Chaldee  : 
which  alone  accounts  for  the  phenomenon  of  their  some- 
times using  different,  but  synonymous  Greek  expressions, 
in  relating  the  same  thing.  "We  possess,  (says  he,)  in 
our  three  first  gospels,  three  translations  of  the  above- 
mentioned  shorf  Life  of  Christ,  which  Avere  made  indepen- 
dently of  each  other.  Examples,  (he  states,)  may  be  pro- 
duced, which  betray  even  an  inaccuracy  of  translation. 

The  pha?nomena,  in  the  verbal  agreement  of  our  three 
first  gospels,  are,  however,  of  such  a  particular  description, 
as  to  be  wholly  incompatible  with  the  notion  of  three  inde- 
pendent translations  of  the  same  original.  They  are  of 
such  a  particular  description,  that  it  lay  not  within  the 
power  of  transcribers  to  have  produced  them.  They  afford 
so  severe  a  test,  that  no  other  assignable  cause,  than  that 
by  which  the  effects  were  really  produced,  can  be, expected 
to  account  for  them." 

Eichhorn  expressly  declares  that  he  leaves  the  question, 
undecided,  whether  our  three  first  Evangelists  made  use 
of  the  Hebrew  document,  or  whether  they  had  only  trans- 
lations of  it. 


BEAUSOBRE'S    HYPOTHESIS. 

*  "  At  the  head  of  the  first  class  [of  Scriptures]  are  to 
be  placed  two  gospels,   [that,  according  to  the  Hebreics,  and 

THAT    ACCORDING    TO    THE      EGYPTIANS.]        In     my     OpiniOH, 

the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews,  is  the  most  ancient 

*  "  11  faut  mettre  a  la  tete  de  la  premiere  classe  deux  Evangiles  .  .  .  Le  plus 
ancien  de  tout  est  a  mon  avis,  VEvangile  selon  les  Hebreux,  que  les  Nazareenes 
pretenoient  etre  I'original  de  S.  Matthieu.     II  commencoit  par  ces  mots  Eytrtro  iv 

T«.c  »;u.{.a.?    HQwS».-ap.  Epiph.    Hmr.    30 Ilparait,  par 

les  fragmens,  qui  nous  en  ont  ete  conservez  qu'il  ne  contenoit  aucune  heresie,  et 
qu'a  quelques  circonstances  pres  I'Histoire  de  Notre  Seigneur  y  etoit  rapportes  fi- 
delement.  , 

C'est  dans  cet  Evangile  qu'on  lisoit  I'histoire  dela  femme  surprise  en  adultere, 
laquelle  est  racontee  au  Chap,  viii,  de  S.  Jean.  Et  comme  elle  n'etoit  pas  dans  pln- 
sieurs  exemplaires  de  ce  dernier  Evangile,  quelques-uns  ont  conjecture ,  qu  elle  avoit 
dte  prise  de  I'Evangile  des  Na^areens  ;  et  inserte  dans  S.  Jean.    Si  cela  est   vrai 

12* 


126  beausobre's  hypothesis. 

of  all.  This,  the  Nazarenes  pretended,  was  the  orig-inal 
from  which  that  of  St.  Matthew  was  taken.  It  began  with 
these  words — ''  //  happened  in  the  days  of  Herod.'''' 

"  It  appears  from  the  fragments  of  it  which  have  been 
preserved  to  us,  that  it  contained  no  heresy,  and  that  with 
the  exception  of  some  circumstances,  the  history  of  our 
Lord,  was  therein  faithfully  related.  It  is  in  this  Gospel 
that  we  read  the  history  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery, 
which  is  told  in  the  8th  chapter  of  St.  John  ;  and  since 
this  was  not  contained  in  many  copies  of  this  latter  gospel, 
some  persons  have  conjectured  that  it  was  taken  out  of 
the  Gospel  of  the  Nazarenes,  and  inserted  in  that  of 
St.  John.  If  this  be  true,  it  is  a  testimony  which  the 
ancients  have  rendered  to  the  Gospel  of  the  Nazarenes  : 
and  if  this  history  was  originally  contained  in  St.  John's 
Gospel,  it  is  another  proof  of  the  truth  of  their  gospel. 

"  That  which  has  been  called  the  Gospel  according 
TO  THE  Egyptians,  is  of  the  same  antiquity.  Origen  has 
mentioned  it ;  Clemens  Jllexandrinus  had  previously  quoted 
it  in  several  places  ;  and  if  the  second  epistle  of  Clemens 
Romanus  be  authentic,  this  Gospel  would  have  a  testimony 
even  yet  more  ancient  than  that  of  those  two  doctors. 
There  is  also,  in  the  Library  of  the  Fathers^  a  commentary 
on  St.  Luke,  attributed  to  Titus  of  Bostra,  in  which  this 

c'est  un  temoignage  que  les  Anciens  rendent  a  I'Evangile  des  Nazareens  ;  et  si 
cette  histoire  a  ete  originairement  dans  S.  Jean,  c'est  une  autre  preuve  de  la  verite 
de  leur  Kvangile. 

Celui,  que  Ton  a  nomme  selon  les  Egyptiens  est  de  la  meme  antiquite,  Ori- 
gene  en  a  fait  mention.  Clement  d'Alexandrie  I'avoit  deja  allegue  en  quelques 
endroits.  Et  si  la  Seconde  Epitre  de  Clement  Remain  est  de  lui,  cet  Evangile 
auroit  un  temoignage  plus  ancien  que  celui  de  ces  deux  Docteurs.  On  a  aussi, 
dans  la  Bibliotheque  des  Peres,  un  Commentaire  sur  S.  Luc  qu'on  attribue  a  Tite 
de  Bostres,  dans  lequel  cet  Eveque  semble  mettre  I'Evangile  selon  les  Egyptiens  au 
rang  de  ceux  que  S.  Luc  a  indiquez,  et  par  consequent  anterieurs  au  sien.  ^  Comme 
les  Encratites  le  citoient  pour  defendre  leur  Erreur  sur  le  Marriage,  les  Beres  n'en 
ont  point  rejette  absolument  les  temoignages.  lis  ont  lache  de  les  expliquer  dans 
un  sens  orthodoxe  ;  ce  qui  montre,  que  ce  Livre  avoit  unesorte  d'autorite,  et  qu'on 
ne  le  soupgonnoit  pas  meme  d'avoir  ete  suppos6  par  des  Heretiques.  Quand 
j'ai  considere,  qu'il  etoit  regu  par  les  Chretiens  d'Egypte,  je  n'a  pQ  me  defendre 
de  la  pensee,  qu'il  avoit  ete  ecrit  par  des  Esseniens,  qui  avoient  cru  en  J. 
Christ.  La  Religion  de  ces  Gens  la  tenoient  beaucoup  de  la  Religion  Chretienne. 
L'Evangile  des  Egyptiens  etoit  plein  de  mystique,  de  parabolas,  d'enigmes,  d'alle- 
gories.  On  attribue  cela  a  I'esprit  de  la  Nation  ;  pour  moi,  je  I'attribuerois  plutot 
a  I'esprit  des  Esseniens.  On  y  trouvoit  des  sentences,  qui  paroissoient  iavonser 
I'Encratisine.  Or  les  Esseniens  vivoient  dans  la  continence,  et  dans  1  abstiaence. 
11  est  done  bien  vraisemblable,  que  des  personnes  de  cette  Secte,  Judaique,  la  seule 
que  J.  Christ  n'ait  jamais  censuree,  s'attacherent  au  Fils  de  Dieu,  le  suiviren  ;  et 
que,  s'etant  retirez  en  Egypte  apres  sa  mort,  ils  y  compos6rent  une  Histoire  de  sa 
Vie  etde  sa  Doctrine,  qui  parut  en  Egypte,  et  qui  ful  appellee  a  cause  de  cela, 
I'Evangile  selon  les  Egyptiens." — Beausob,  Munich.  Tom.  1,  p.  455,  466. 


beausobre's  hypothesis.  127 

bishop  seems  to  place  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians 
in  the  rank  of  those  which  St.  Luke  had  investig-ated,  and 
which  consequently  were  anterior  to  his.  Since  the  En- 
cratites  (abstemious  monks,  Therapeuts)  quoted  it  to  defend 
their  error  concerning  marriage,  the  priests  have  not  alto- 
gether rejected  its  testimonies.  They  have  endeavoured 
to  explain  it  in  an  orthodox  sense  ;  which  shows  that  this 
book  had  a  sort  of  authority,  and  that  they  never  even 
suspected  that  it  had  been  foisted  in  by  heretics.  Upon 
considering  (the  unquestionahle  fact)  that  it  was  received  by 
the  Christians  of  Egypt,  I  have  not  been  able  to  hinder 
myself  from  thinking,  that  it  was  written  by  the  Essenes, 
who  had  believed  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  religion  of  this 
people  contained  a  great  deal  of  the  Christian  religion. 
The  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians  was  full  of  mysticism, 
parables,  enigmas  and  allegories  :  this  has  been  attributed 
to  the  spirit  of  the  nation  ;  for  my  part,  I  impute  it  rather 
to  the  Essenian  cast  of  character.  There  may  be  found 
therein  sentences  which  seemed  to  favour  Encratism 
{Monkery.)  Now,  the  Essenians  lived  in  continence  and 
abstinence ;  it  is,  then,  very  probable,  that  persons  of  this 
Jewish  sect,  the  only  one  which  Jesus  Christ  never  found 
fault  with,  attached  themselves  to  the  Son  of  God,  fol- 
lowed him,  and  upon  retiring  into  Egypt  after  his  death, 
there,  composed  a  history  of  his  life  and  doctrine,  which 
appeared  first  in  Egypt,  ^nd  which  on  that  account  was 
called  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians." 

Thus  far  the  most  eminent,  ingenuous  and  learned  of 
French  divines,  Beausobre*  Let  the  reader  take  with  him 
the  light  of  this  great  critic's  admission,  quoted  page  58, 
and  of  his  knowledge  of  the  Essenes  and  Therapeuts, 
established  in  our  seventh  chapter,  thereupon  following  ; 
and  cast  up  the  results.  He  will  find  that  the  history  of 
ages  so  "  long  ago  betid,"  never  gave  to  any  fact  whatever 
a  higher  degree  of  certainty, — than  the  certainty,  that  this 
Egyptian  Gospel  was  the  Diegesis,  or  first  type,  from 
which  our  four  Gospels  are  mere  plagiarisms  ;  and  that  it 
contained  the  whole  story  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  general 
rule  of  faith  professed  by  a  set  of  Egyptian  monks,  (from 
whatever  sources  those  monks  themselves  had  derived  it, 

*  I  particularly  wish  the  reader  to  observe  the  superior  honesty  of  Beausobre  : 
he  alone  has  the  moral  courage  to  utter  the  name  of  the  original,  from  which  our 
gospels  are  derived,  the  Gospel,  according  to  the  Egyptians.  All 
the  rest,  aware  of  the  mighty  argument  with  which  it  teems,  seem  to  say,  "  Take 
any  shape  but  that,  and  our  firm  knees  should  never  tremble  !" 


128  BISHOP  marsh's  hypothesis. 

which  we  shall  hereafter  enquire,)  many  years,  probably 
ages,  before  the  period  assig-ned  to  the  birth  of  Christ. 
Consequently,  the  fallacy  of  the  pretence  of  the  real  exist- 
ence of  such  a  personage  in  Palestine,  and  in  or  about  the 
age  of  the  emperor  Augustus,  is  absolutely  demonstrated. 


BISHOP    MARSH  S    HYPOTHESIS. 

Bishop  Marsh,  however,  demonstrates  that  the  hypo- 
thesis of  a  common  Hebrew  document,  is  incapable,  in 
any  shape  whatever,  of  explaining  the  phiBUomena  ;  and 
labours,  as  it  became  a  bishop  to  do,  to  save  the  credit  of 
divine  inspiration,  upon  the  perplexed  hypothesis,  which 
his  indefatigable  ingenuity  has  excogitated,  and  than 
which  perhaps  there  is  none  more  probable,  that,  '•'  >S^ 
Matthew^  St.  Mark,  and  St.  Luke,  all  three  used  different 
copies  of  some  common  document,  which  before  any  of  our 
canonical  Greek  gospels  existed,  was  known  as  the 
Gospel    according    to    the    Hebrews,   or   the   Gospel 

ACCORDING      TO      THE      TwELVE      ApOSTLES    ;      a    gOSpel,     of 

which  the  ancients  speak  with  great  respect  ;  or  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Nazarenes,  or  the  Gospel 
according  to  Matthew.  77ie  materials  of  which,  our 
St.  Matthew,  icho  loroie  in  Hebrew,  retained,  in  the  language 
in  which  he  found  them,  Hebrew,  Chaldee  or  Syriac  :  but 
St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke,  beside  their  copies  of  that  original 
Hebrew,  Chaldee,  or  Syriac  document,  v^ed  a  Greek  trans- 
lation of  it,  which  had  been  made  before  amj  of  the  additions, 
which  OUR  St.  Matthew  found  in  his  Hebrew  copy,  had 
been  inserted.  Lastly,  the  person  who  translated  St.  Matthew^s 
Hebrew  copy  of  that  original  document  into  Greek,  fre- 
quently derived  assistance  from  the  Greek  Translation  of  St. 
Mark,  where  St.  Mark  had  matter  in  common  with  St.  Mat- 
thew ;  that  is,  to  save  his  own  trouble,  he  copied  the 
Greek  of  St.  Mark,  instead  of  continuing  his  own  trans- 
lation, de  novo,  from  Matthew's  Hebrew  transcript  :  and 
in  those  places,  but  in  those  places  only,  where  St.  Mark  had 
no  matter  in  common  with  St.  Mattheio,  he  frequently  had  re- 
course, with  the  same  view,  to  the  ready-made  Greek  of  St. 
Luke''s  Gospel.  But  though  the  person  who  translated  St. 
Matthew's  particular  Hebrew  copy  of  the  common  He- 
brew document  into  Greek,  did  compare  and  collate  those 
two  other  gospels  with  his  own,  yet  Matthew,  Mark  and 
Luke,  had  no  knowledge  of  each  other^s  gospels. 


THE    GNOMOLOGUE.  129 


THE  DIEGESIS. 


This  first  or  earlier  draught  of  the  life  and  history  of 
Christ,  is  acknowledged  by  St.  Luke,  as  the  basis  of  the 
gospel  story,  and  called  the  Diegesis,  or  Declaration,*  that 
is,  narrative  of  those  things  which  are  most  surely  believed 
among  us.  In  the  undistinguished  manner  of  representing, 
his  sense  in  our  English  text,  it  escapes  observation,  that, 
what  is  rendered  a  declaration,  &c.  really  is  the  title 
of  the  work,  of  which  this  gospel  professes  no  more  than 
to  be  "a  setting  forth  in  order ^'^^  or  more  methodical 
arrangement. 

THE    GNOMOLOGUE. 

But  besides  this  Diegesis,  the  common  basis  of  the 
three  first  gospels,  as  of  many  others  which  many  had 
taken  in  hand,  to  reduce  and  arrange  into  more  consistent 
order,  there  existed  also  a  gnomologue,!  or  collection  of 
precepts,  parables,  and  discourses,  which  were  supposed 
to  have  been  delivered  by  Christ,  at  different  times,  and 
on  different  occasions  ;  and  this,  in  addition  to  the 
Diegesis,  was  a  common  authority  to  St.  Matthew  and 
St.  Luke,  though  it  seems  to  have  been  unknown  to  St. 
Mark. 

Proceeding  steadily  upon  our  principle  avowed  in  the 
motto  of  this  work,  which  binds  us  to  view  all  pretences 
to  any  thing  out  of  nature ,  as  a  surrender  of  all  the  stress 
that  is  laid  on  so  weak  an  argument ;  the  reader  will 
know  at  once  in  what  sense  he  is  to  understand  the 
bishop's  struggle  to  bar  off"  the  conclusions  to  which  he 
has  thus  far  marshalled  our  way.  Every  step  which  is 
here  supposed,  he  tells  us,  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the 
doctrine  of  inspiration,  not  indeed  of  verbal  inspiration, 
but  with  that  sort  of  inspiration,  in  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
watched  over  the  sacred  compilers  with  so  suspended  a 
hand,  as  left  them  to  the  guidance  of  their  own  faculties, 
while  they  kept  clear  of  error  ;  and  only  interposed,  when 
without  this  divine  assistance,  they  would  have  been  in 
danger  of  falling.  "  With  such  an  inspiration,  (continues 
this  Right  Reverend  expositor  of  the  divine  mysteries,) 

*  EneiSriTTtQ  noXXoi  iTlexeiqriaav  avara'^aaSat  JIHrjISiN  rtiqi  Twr  ninXr^Qo. 
tpoQtjfitvwv  tv  rjfiiv  TiQayiiaTm — cSo^s  xa'iiot'. — Luke  i.  1. 

t  Such  a  work  seems  to  be  designated  under  various  titles  in  the  Epistles 
dfPaul,  asthe  Form  of  Sound  Words,  the  Doctrine,  the  Words  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  ^-c." — 1  Tim.  vi.  3.  The  Doctrine  According  to  God- 
liness, Sfc. — -See  Syntagma,  p  74. 


130  OF  ST.  John's  gospel  in  particular. 

the  opinion  that  the  Evangelists  drew  a  great  part  of  their 
materials  from  a  written  document,  is  perfectly  con- 
sistent ;  for  if  that  document  contained  any  thing  erro- 
neous, they  had  the  power  of  detecting  and  correcting  it." 
Such  is  a  succinct  but  accurate  view  of  Bishop  Marsh's 
Dissertation  on  the  Origin  and  Composition  of  the  Three 
First  Canonical  Gospels,  of  249  pages,  appended  to  the 
third  volume  of  his  translation  of  Michaelis's  Introduction, 
Edit.  2,  London  1802. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

of  ST.  John's  gospel  in  particular. 
All  ecclesiastical  writers  seem  to  have  agreed  in  repre- 
senting the  gospel  according  to  St.  John,  as  written  at 
some  considerable  length  of  time  after  the  publication  of 
the  three  other  gospels,  and  generally  with  a  view  to  con- 
fute the  heresies  of  the  Cerinthians,  Sabians,  and  Gnostics, 
which  had  either  previously  existed,  or  had  risen  into  a 
mischievous  notoriety,  since  the  publication  of  those 
gospels.  He  had  read  the  three  first  gospels  before  he 
composed  his  own,  and  appears,  says  Bishop  Marsh, 
to  have  corrected,  though  in  a  very  delicate  manner,  the 
accounts  given  by  his  predecessors  ;  which,  if  his  pre- 
decessors were  under  such  an  inspiration  of  the  holy 
spirit,  as  was  sufficient  to  keep  them  clear  of  error,  must 
indeed  have  required  the  greatest  delicacy.  The  Bishop, 
however,'has  merited  our  forgiveness  of  this  absurdity,  by 
the  frankness  of  his  confession,  that  after  all  his  attempts 
to  reconcile  the  contradiction  of  St.  John's  account  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  with  that  of  Mark  and  Luke,  "  he 
has  not  been  able  to  do  it,  in  a  manner  satisfactory  either 
to  himself,  or  to  any  other  impartial  inquirer  into  truth." 
He  concludes  with  even  more  than  necessary  caution, 
that  "  if  it  be  true  that  there  are  passages  in  St.  John's 
Gospel,  which  are  at  variance  with  the  accounts  given  by 
the  other  Evangelists,  we  cannot  hesitate  to  give  the  pre- 
ference to  St.  John,  who  wrote  last,  and  appears  to  have 
had  an  excellent  memory."*  Some  persons  have  need  of 
excellent  memories. 

*  Vol.  3,  p.  315. — Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  it  seems,  had  but  indifferent 
mennories,  even  with  the  Holy  Ghost  to  jog  'em,  and  John's  memory  has 
corrected  some  of  the  Holy  Ghost's  bluhtlers. 

O  Sant  Esprit !     La  voila  ton  ou\Tage. 


EVANSON.  131 

DR.  semler's  hypothesis. 

Dr.  Semler  contends,  that  St.  John  wrote  before  the 
other  three  Evangelists,  and  the  weight  of  his  authority, 
which  alone  would  give  respectability  to  his  criticism, 
seems  to  be  seconded  by  the  historical  evidence  of  the 
existence  of  the  heretical  sects  which  St.  John  wrote  to 
refute,  long  anterior  to  any  date  which  Christians  have 
ascribed  to  the  three  first  gospels.  An  evangelist,  who 
had  seen  the  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke,  and 
wished  to  second  and  support  their  authority,  would 
hardly  have  committed  himself  in  the  egregious  and  irre- 
concileable  contradictions  which  this  gospel  presents, 
when  compared  with  those  :  and  surely,  no  one  can  be 
ignorant  that  the  Platonic  and  Pythagorean  doctrines, 
which  distinguish  and  characterize  this  gospel,  existed 
several  ages  before  the  birth  of  Christ.  Nor  ought  the 
strong  arguments  which  the  learned  have  adduced,  in 
proof  that  Plato  and  Pythagoras  themselves  were  both 
members  of  the  Therapeutan  society,  or  had  derived  their 
doctrines  from  the  sacred  writings  of  this  sect,  to  be  of 
little  weight  with  us.  The  universal  delusion  of  eccle- 
siastical history  consists  in  ascribing  a  later  date  to  earlier 
institutions,  in  representing  that  which  was  the  origination, 
as  the  corruption  of  Christianity,  and  in  bringing  down 
the  monkish  and  monastic  epocha  to  any  period  below 
the  second  or  third  century,  in  order  to  keep  the  clue  of 
the  whole  labyrinth  out  of  sight,  and  to  evade  the  clear 
solution  of  all  the  difficulties  of  the  inquiry,  which  presents 
itself  in  the  fact  that  Eusebius  has  attested,  that  the 
Therapeutan  monks  were  Christians,  many  ages  before 
the  period  assigned  to  the  birth  of  Christ ;  and  that  the 
Diegesis  and  Gnomologue,  from  which  the  Evangelists 
compiled  their  gospels,  were  writings  which  had  for  ages 
constituted  the  sacred  scriptures  of  those  Egyptian  vision- 


The  learned  Evanson,  who,  though  a  Unitarian  divine, 
professes  himself  to  be  a  firm  believer  in  revelation,  and 
a  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ,*  marks  with  triple  notes  of 
admiration  his  astonishment  that  the   orthodox  should 

*  In  hia  Work  on  the  Dissonance  of  the  Four  Evangelists,  published  1792, 
p.  222. 


132  FALSEHOOD  OF  GOSPEL  GEOGRAPHY. 

receive  gospels  which  so  flatly  contradict  each  other,  as 
each  equally  true.  And  of  the  adorable  miracle  of  turn- 
ing water  into  wine,  he  observes,  that  coming  in  so  very 
exceptionable  a  form,  upon  the  testimony  of  so  very  excep- 
tionable an  historian,  it  is  altogether  as  unworthy  of 
belief  as  the  fabulous  Roman  Catholic  legend  of  St.  Ni- 
cholas's chickens. 


BRETSCHNEIDER. 

Since  Christian  tolerance  has  endured  these  pregnant 
admissions  against  the  claims  of  divine  revelation,  the 
sceptical  world  has  been  enriched  by  the  Probabilia  of 
Bretschneider,  published  at  Leipsic  1820,  in  which  that 
illustrious  divine,  compatibly  with  an  equally  sincere  pro- 
fession of  faith  in  Christianity  ;  and  what  is  in  some  views 
a  much  more  important  consideration,  compatibly  with 
keeping  his  divinity  professorship,  and  presidency  of  a 
Protestant  university  ;  has  shown  that  the  Jesus  depicted 
in  the  fourth  g  ospel  is  wholly  out  of  keeping,  and  entirely 
a  different  sort  of  character  from  the  Jesus  of  Matthew, 
Mark  and  Luke,  and  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  that  both 
descriptions  could  be  true  ;  that  this  gospel  contains  no 
testimony  of  an  independent  historian,  or  of  a  witness  to 
the  things  therein  related,  but  is  derived  solely  from  some 
written  or  unwritten  tradition  ;  and  that  its  author  was 
neither  an  inhabitant  of  Palestine,  nor  a  Jew.* 

This,  however,  is  not  more  than  may,  from  internal 
evidence,  be  argued  against  the  other  evangelists,  or  at 
least  Matthew  and  Mark,  whose  writings  betray  so  great 
an  ignorance  of  the  geography,  statistics,  and  even  lan- 
guage of  Judea,  as  the  most  illiterate  inhabitants  of  that 
country  could  by  no  possibility  have  fallen  into — exempli 
gratia. 

FALSEHOOD  OF  GOSPEL  GEOGRAPHY. 

1.  ^^  He  came  unto  the  sea  of  Galilee,  through  the  midst  oj 
the  coasts  of  Decapolis^''''  {Mark  vii.  31):  when  there  were 
no  coasts  of  Decapolis,  nor  was  the  name  so  much  as 
known  before  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Nero. 

2.  "  /fe  departed  from    Galilee,    and   came  into  the  coasts  oj 

*  Jesus,  quem  depinxit,  quartuni  evangelium,  valde  diversus  est  a  Jesa 
in  prioribus  evangeliis  dcscripto — nee  utraque  descriptio  simul  vera  esse 
protest — Evangelista,  nee  ea  qua;  facta  esse  tradidit,  ipse  videt,  sed  e  traditione 
aut  scripta  aut  non  scripta,  liausit — nee  Palrestinensis  nee  Judseus  fuit. — 
Bretschneider  in  Ordine  Argument  or  titn. 


FALSEHOOD  OF  GOSPEL  GEOGRAPHY.         133 

Jvdea,  beyond  Jordan,^^  (Matt.  xix.  1):  when  the  Jordan 
itself  was  the  eastern  boundary  of  Judea,  and  there  were 
no  coasts  of  Judea  beyond  it.* 

3.  "  But  token  he  heard  that  Archdaus  did  reign  in  Judea, 
in  the  room  of  his  father  Herod,  he  teas  afraid  to  go  thither  : 
notwithstanding  being  warned  of  God  in  a  dream,  he  turned 
aside  into  the  parts  of  Galilee,  and  he  came  and  dwelt  in  a  city 
called  JVazareth  ;  that  it  might  be  fulfilled,  which  was  spoken 
by  the  prophets,  he  shall  be  called  a  J\azarene,^^  (Matt.  ii.  22)  : 
when — 1.  It  was  a  son  of  Herod  who  reigned  in  his  stead, 
in  Galilee  as  well  as  in  Judea,  so  that  he  could  not  be 
securer  in  one  province  than  in  the  other  ;  and  when — 
2.  It  was  impossible  for  him  to  have  gone  from  Egypt  to 
Nazareth,  without  travelling  through  the  whole  extent  of 
Archelaus's  kingdom,  or  making  a  peregrination  through 
the  deserts  on  the  north  and  east  of  the  Lake  Asphaltites, 
and  the  country  of  Moab  ;  and  then,  either  crossing  the 
Jordan  into  Samaria  or  the  Lake  of  Gennesareth  into 
Galilee,  and  from  thence  going  to  the  city  of  Nazareth  ; 
which  is  no  better  geography,  than  if  one  should  describe  ' 
a  person  as  turning  aside  from  Cheapside  into  the  parts  of 
Yorkshire  ;  and  when — 3.  There  were  no  prophets  what- 
ever, or  certainly  none  that  either  Jew  or  Christian  would 
allow  to  be  prophets,  who  had  prophesied  that  Jesus 
"  should  be  called  a  JsTazarene  ;"  and  when — 4.  It  is  not  true 
(according  to  the  subsequent  history)  that  Jesus  was  ever 
called  a  Nazarene ;  and  when — 5.  J^azarene  was  not 
a.name  derived  from  any  place  whatever,  but  from  a 
sect  of  Egyptian  monks,  and  was  none  other  than  of  the 
same  significancy  as  Essene  or  Therapeut — a  fact  which 
throws  further  light  on  this  monkish  legend  y  and  when — 
6.  Had  Jesus  been  a  Jew,  and  derived  his  epitheton 
according  to  Jewish  customs  from  the  place  of  his  bi"rth, 
he  would  have  been  called,  not  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  but 
Jesus  of  Bethlehem. 

4.  After  Christ  and  the  Devil  had  ended  their  forty  days' 
familiarity  in  the  wilderness,  "  He  departed  into  Galilee, 
and  leaving  JVazareth,  he  came  and  dwelt  in  Capernaum, 
which  is  upon  the  sea-coast  in  the  borders  of  Zabulon,  and 
JVephthalim,  that  it  might  be  fulfilled,  which  icas  spoken  by 
Esaias  the  prophet,  saying.  The  land  of  Zabxdon  and  the  land 
of  JVephthalim,  by  the  way  of  the  sea,  beyond  Jordan,  Galilee 
of  the  Gentiles,''''  &c.  (Matt.  iv.  12,  13)  ;  when,  to  Esaias,  or 
any  inhabitant  of  Judea,  the  country  beyond  must  be  the 

*  Evanson,  p.  169. 

13 


134  FALSEHOOD    OP    GOSPEL    DATES. 

country  east  of  the  Jordan,  (as  Gaulonitis,  or  Galilee  of 
the  Gentiles,  is  well  known  to  have  been);  whereas  Caper- 
naum was  a  city  on  the  western  side  of  the  Lake  of  Gen- 
nesareth,  through  which  the  Jordan  flows. 

5.  "  He  departed  into  Galilee,  and  leaving  J^azareth,  came 
and  dicelt  at  Capernaum,^^  (Matt.  iv.  13):  as  if  he  imagined 
that  the  city  Nazareth  was  not  as  properly  in  Galilee  as 
Capernaum  was  ;  which  is  much  such  geographical  accu- 
racy, as  if  one  should  relate  "the  travels  of  a  hero,  who 
departed  into  Middlesex,  and  leaving  London,  came  and 
dwelt  in  Lombard-street. 


FALSEHOOD    OF    GOSPEL    DATES. 

1.  The  principal  indications  of  time  occurring  in  the 
Gospels,  are — 

"  And  it  came  to  pass  in  those  days,  that  there  went  out 
a  decree  from  Ccesar  Augustus,  that  all  the  world  should  be 
*  taxed ;  and  this  taxing  icas  first  made  when  Cyrenius  icas 
governor  of  Syria." — Luke  ii.  1,  2. 

It  happens  however,  awkwardly  enough. 

1st.  That  there  is  no  mention  in  any  ancient  Roman  or 
Greek  historian,  of  any  general  taxing  of  people  all  over 
the  world,  or  the  whole  Roman  empire,  in  the  time  of 
Augustus,  nor  of  any  decree  of  the  emperor  for  that  pur- 
pose: and  this  is  an  event  of  such  character  and  magni- 
tude, as  to  exclude  even  the  possibility  of  the  Greek  aqd 
Roman  historians  omitting  to  have  mentioned  it,  had  it 
ever  really  happened. 

2dly.  That  in  those  days,. that  is,  "when  Jesus  was 
born,  in  the  days  of  Herod  the  king,"  Judea  was  not  at 
that  time  a  Roman  province  ;  and  it  is  therefore  absolutely 
impossible  that  there  could  have  been  any  such  taxing 
there,  by  any  such  decree,  of  any  such  Caisar  Augustus. 

3dly.  That  Cyrenius  was  not  Governor  of  Syria,  till  ten 
or  twelve  years  after  the  time  assigned  as  that  of  the  birth 
of  Christ. 

4thly.  That  the  whole  passage  is  taken  from  one  of  those 
apochryphal  gospels  which  were  in  full  vogue  long  before 
this  of  St.  Luke  was  written  ;  some  of  which,  by  leaving 
the  times  and  seasons  entirely  in  the  hand  of  God,  repre- 
sented that  this  taxing  was  first  made  when  King  Solomon 
was  reigning  in  all  his  glory,  so  that  Pontius  Pilate  and 
he  were  contemporary,  which  did  well  enough  before  the 


^ 


FALSEHOOD  OF  GOSPEL  PHRASEOLOGY.        135 

wicked  and  sceptical  art  of  criticism  began  to  underinine 
the  pillars  of  faith. 

2.  "  There  \oere  present  at  that  season,  some  that  told 
him  of  the  Galileans,  whose  blood  Pilate  had  mingled  with 
their  sacrifices.''^ — Luke  xiii.  1. 

No  historian,  Jewish,  Greek  or  Roman,  has  made  the 
least  allusion  to  this  bloody  work  ;  which  it  is  next  to 
impossible  that  they  could  have  failed  to  do,  had  it  really 
happened. 

Such  an  act  was  entirely  out  of  character  ;  for  Pilate  was 
a  Pag-an  and  a  sacrificer  himself,  and  would  never  have 
considered  idolatry  as  a  crime  in  any  body.  We  have  the 
solution  of  the  difficulty  at  once,  by  admitting  the  proba- 
bility, that  as  the  name  of  King  Herod  was  substituted  in 
the  later  or  more  orderly  and  methodical  transcripts  of  the 
Diegesis,  for  that  of  King  Solomon,  so  the  act  of  good 
King  Josiah  (2  Kings  xxiii.)  has  here  been  fathered  upon 
Pontius  Pilate. 


FALSEHOOD    OF    GOSPEL  STATISTICS. 

1.  Annas  and  Caiaphas  being  the  high-priests  (Luke  iii. 
2)  ;  when  any  person  acquainted  with  the  history  and  polity 
of  the  Jews,  must  have  known  that  there  never  was  but 
one  high-priest  at  a  time,  any  more  than  among  ourselves 
there  is  never  but  one  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

2.  Caiaphas,  which  ivas  the  high-priest  that  same  year, 
rjohn  viii.  13,)  being  high-priest  that  year,  he  prophesied 
{John  xi.  50)  ;  when  no  Jew  could  have  been  ignorant 
that  the  high-priest's  office  was  not  annual,  but  for  life, 
and  that  prophesying  was  no  privilege  nor  part  of  that 
office. 

3.  "  Search  and  look,  for  out  of  Galilee  ariseth  no  pro- 
phet,^^  (John  vii.  52)  ;  when  the  most  distinguished  of  the 
Jewish  prophets,  Nahum  and  Jonah,  were  both  Galileans. 


FALSEHOOD    OF    GOSPEL    PHRASEOLOGY. 

"  They  brought  the  ass  and  the  colt,  and  put  on  them  their 
clothes,  and  set  him  thereon,^"*  (Matt.  xxi.  7)  ;  i.  e.  like  Mr. 
Ducrow,  at  Astley's  Theatr.e,  a-straddle  across  them  both. 
This  translator  of  Matthew's  supposed  original  Hebrew 
copy  of  the  Diegesis,  being  so  grossly  ignorant  of  the 
common  pleonasm  of  the  Hebrew  language,  as  to  mistake 


136  ULTIMATE    RESULT. 

its  ordinary  emphatic  way  of  indicating  a  particular 
object  by  a  repetition  of  the  word  ;  as,  an  ass,  "  even  that 
which  ivas  the  son,^''  or  foal,  or  had  been  born  of  an  as8  ;  for 
two  of  the  species.* 

2.  "  And  he  said  unto  them,  Go  wash  in  the  pool  oj 
Siloam,  which  is  by  interpretation  -Seni,"  (John  xix.  7)  ;f 
which  happens  to  be  an  interpretation  which  no  Jewish 
writer  could  possibly  have  given  :  Silo  am  signifying,  not 
Sent,  but  the  place  of  the  sending  forth  of  waters,  that  is, 
the  sluice :  to  say  nothing  of  the  absurdity  of  representing 
the  pool  as  sent  to  the  man,  instead  of  the  man  being  sent 
to  the  pool  :  or  of  the  absurdity  of  supposing  that  one  who 
was  blind,  could  see  his  way  thither.  Sure,  here  seems 
to  have  been  a  greater  chance  of  the  poor  man's  getting 
his  baptism  than  his  conversion.  This  text  has  so  puzzled 
the  commentators,  that  they  have  endeavoured  to  get  the 
words  "  which  is  by  interpretation,  /Senf,"  considered  as 
a  mere  marginal  note  ;  but  the  authority  of  the  Codices 
attests  them  to  be  a  part  of  the  text  itself.  Whatever, 
then,  be  the  credit  due  to  the  three  first  evangelists,  the 
fourth  may  well  be  considered  as  neither  better  nor  worse, 
and  must  stand  or  fall  with  them. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

ULTIMATE    RESULT. 

Such  errors  as  we  have  exemplified,  and  innumerable 
other  such  there  are,  in  every  one  of  the  four  gospels,  can 
be  accounted  for  on  no  suppositions  congruous  with  the 
idea  of  their  having  been  written  either  by  any  such  per- 

*  Similar  pleonasms,  not  without  considerable  beauty,  are — 

"  God  is  not  a  man,  that  he  should  die,  nor  the  son  of  man,  that  he  should  re- 
pent."— Numb,  xxiii.  19. 

"  Shall  rise  up  as  a  great  lion,  and  lift  up  himself  as  a  young  lion." — ^Numb. 
xxiii.  21. 

"  Lord,  what  is  man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him,  or  the  Son  of  man,  that  thou 
80  regardest  him  ?" — Psalm. 

t  Chup.  xix.  7.  Ubi  auctor  vocem  2t).uiaii  falso  interpretatur per  ct.TiaTa).fitroc, 
Ct  ex  crrore  nibli?  missus,  pronuntiavit  n'\h\i/  Emissio,  sell,  aquarum  Ejusmodi 
error  vero,  nee  Joanni  Apostolo,  neque  alii  cuidain  scriptori  Judaeo 
accidere  potuisset.  Codicum  auctoritate  prorsus  genuina  judicanda  sunt  ista 
verba.— JSrets  cAneider. 


ULTIMATE  RESULT.  137 

sons,  at  any  such  time,  or  under  any  such  circumstances, 
as  have  been  generally  assumed  for  them.  But  we  may 
challenge  the  whole  world's  history  to  furnish,  from  a 
period  of  such  remote  antiquity,  a  coincidence  of  circum- 
stantial evidence  to  prove  any  fact  whatever,  so  strong, 
so  concatenated,  and  so  entirely  responsive  to  all  the 
claims  of  the  phenomena,  as  the  evidence  here  adduced, 
that  the  first  types  of  the  Gospel-story  sprang  from  the 
Egyptian  monks,  and  constituted  the  substance  of  the 
mystical  romance,  which  they  had  modified  from  the  Pagan 
mythology,  in  conformity  to  their  professed  and  acknow- 
ledged Eclectic  Philosophy,  and  imposed  for  antecedent 
ages  on  the  ecclesiastical  colonies,  which  had  migrated 
from  the  mother  church  of  Alexandria. 

Thus,  after  Europe  and  all  Christian  communities  have 
been  for  so  many  ages  led  to  believe  that  in  the  four  gos- 
pels tliey  possessed  the  best  translations  that  could  be 
derived,  in  their  several  languages,  from  the  original 
inspired  text  of  immediate  disciples  and  contemporaries 
of  Christ  ;  it  is  at  length  admitted,  that  mankind  have 
been  and  are  egregiously  deceived.  1.  It  is  admitted, 
that  these  gospels  were  not  written  by  the  persons  to 
whom  they  are  ascribed  ;  2.  That  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke 
and  John,  were  only  translators  or  copyists  of  previously 
existing  documents  ;  3.  Composed  by  we  know  not  ivhom  ; 
4.  We  know  not  how  ;  5.  We  know  not  lohere  ;  6.  We 
know  not  when ;  7.  And  containing  we  know  not  what. 
The  very  first  assertion  in  the  title-page  of  our  New  Tes- 
tament, in  stating  that  it  is  translated  from  the  original 
Greek,  involves  a  fallacy  ;  since  it  is  absolutely  certain 
that  the  Greek,  from  which  our  translations  were  made, 
was  well  nigh  as  far  from  being  original,  as  the  translations 
themselves,  and  it  is  absolutely  uncertain  what  the  original 
was. 

Irenseus  indeed,  the  disciple  of  Polycarp,  which  Poly- 
carp  is  said  to  have  conversed  with  St.  John,  and  who 
himself  lived  and  wrote  in  the  middle  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, is  the  first  of  all  the  Fathers  who  mentions  the  four 
evangelists  by  name.  But  if  this  testimony  were  as  cer- 
tainly unexceptionable,  as  it  certainly  is  not — the  being 
able  to  trace  these  scriptures  so  high  or  even  higher  than 
the  second  century,  would  be  no  relief  to  the  difficulties  of 
the  evidence  ;  since  the  same  testimony  attests  the  ante- 
cedent prevalence  of  the  heresies  of  the  Marcionites,  Ebion- 
13* 


138  ULTIMATE    RESULT. 

ites  and  Valentinians,  which  were  to  be  refuted  out  of  these 
gospels,  and  which,  as  they  were  undoubtedly  heresies  from 
Christian  doctrine,  carry  us  as  much  too  far  beyond  the 
mark,  as  it  mig-ht  have  been  feared  that  we  should  fall 
short  of  it ;  and  go  to  prove,  that  as  those  heresies,  so 
these  gospels  which  refuted  them,  existed  before  the  time 
ascribed  to  the  birth  of  Christ.  All  the  indications  of  date 
contained  in  those  gospels  themselves,  are  manifestly 
erroneous.  It  is  universally  known  and  admitted,  that  we 
have  no  history,  nor  Christian  writing  whatever  besides, 
that  so  much  as  purports  to  come  within  the  limits  of  the 
first  century.  At  any  rate,  the  predicament  of  being  too 
soon  on  the  stage,  is  as  fatal  to  the  congruities  of  the 
story,  as  being  too  late. 

"  The  history  of  the  New  Testament,"  says  Dr.  Lard- 
ner,  "  is  attended  with  many  difficulties." — Vol.  1.  p.  136. 

What  could  he  mean  by  difficulties,  but  appearances  of 
not  being  true  9  What  could  he  mean  by  many  difficulties, 
but  that  such  appearances  are  not  one,  two,  or  a  dozen, 
but  meet  us  in  every  page  ?  And  what  means  the  labour 
of  his  cumbrous  volumes,  but  so  much  labour  of  so  great 
a  man,  laid  out  on  the  sophistical  business  of  making  what 
he  virtually  admits  appears  to  be  falsehood,  appear  to  be 
truth. 

All  these  geographical,  chronological,  political,  and 
philological  perplexities,  are  such  as  never  could  have 
crossed  the  path  of  straight-forward  narrative  ;  but  are 
such  exactly  as  would  occur  to  Eclectic  plagiaries,  engaged 
in  the  business  of  setting  forth  in  order  a  tale  of  the  then 
olden  time  ;  fitting  new  names  and  new  scenery  to  the 
characters  and  catastrophes  of  an  antiquated  plot  ;  and 
endeavouring  to  put  an  appearance  of  history  and  reality 
upon  the  creations  of  fictions  and  romance. 

That  this  Eclectic  philosophy  of  the  Alexandrine  monks 
is  the  true  parent  of  their  Diegesis,  of  which  the  gospels 
that  have  come  down  to  us,  are  the  legitimate  issue,  is 
the  demonstration  that  will  meet  us  now  at  every  stage  of 
that  comparison  of  the  Pagan  and  Christian  theology, 
which  our  investigation  challenges  from  us. 


PAGAN  AND    CHRISTIAN    THEOLOGY.  139 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

RESEMBLANCES        OP        THE       PAGAN*   AND       CHRISTIAN  THE- 
OLOGY  AUGURY       AND        BISHOPS .ESCULAPIUS,  JESUS 

CHRIST HERCULES,        JESUS        CHRIST — ^-ADONIS,  JESUS 

CHRIST. 

No  conviction  of  our  reason  could  be  conceived  to  be 
more  absolute  and  conclusive,  than  that  which  assures  us 
of  the  utter  impossibility  of  there  being'  any  common  fea- 
tures of  resemblance  between  divine  truth  and  human 
imposture.  We  are  not  conscious  of  our  own  existence 
with  a  greater  degree  of  certainty,  than  that  by  which  we 
know,  that  a  religion  which  hath  "God  for  its  author,  hap- 
piness for  its  end,  and  truth  without  any  mixture  of  error 
for  its  matter,"  could  have  no  likeness  to  the  foolish  and 
impotent  devices  of  weak  and  wicked  men.  The  existence 
of  such  a  likeness  or  resemblance  between  any  two  re- 
lig'ions  whatever,  however  superior  the  one  might  be  to 
the  other,  would  itself  constitute  the  surest  possible 
demonstration  that  both  of  them  were  false.  In  a  religion, 
then,  which  purports  to  be  from  God,  we  have  a  right  to 
expect  internal  evidences  of  its  divinity,  and  a  character 
as  infinitely  superior  to  any  devices  of  men — as  infinite 
wisdom  must  be  superior  to  human  ignorance. 

Having,  then,  obtained  the  consent  of  all  parties,  that  the 
Christian  Saviour,  if  any  such  person  ever  lived  at  all, 
must  have  lived  and  conversed  with  men  in  the  era  of 
Augustus,  that  is,  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  and  that 
all  the  facts  and  doctrines  of  his  religion  are  contained  in 
the  book  called  the  New  Testament*  ;  this  great  and  im- 
portant question  becomes  capable  of  being  put  to  the  test — 
from  which,  nothing  that  is  honest  would  shrink — from 
which  nothing  that  is  true,  can  have  any  thing  to  fear. — 
Nothing  which  can  be  shown  to  have  been  in  existence 
before  the  alleged  time  of  the  birth  of  Christ,  nothing 
which  came  into  existence  long  after  "  his  glorious  resur- 
rection and  ascension,"  can  have  any  claim  to  be  taken 
for  Christianity-  If  before  the  date  assigned  to  Christianity, 
and  in  regions  and  countries  where  a  religion  under  that 
name  was  not  -  known,  we  shall  fiad  all  the  ideas  which 
that  religion  involves,  pre-existent,  and  already  familiar  to 
the  apprehensions  of  men  ;  there  is  no  alternative  but  that 

*  We  say  not  the  Old  Testament,  though  the  Bible  is  a  term  that  compre- 
hends both  ;  the  Old  Testament  will  never  be  vindicated,  and  ought  not  to  be 
attacked  by  any  man. 


140 


PAGAN    AND    CHRISTIAN  THEOLOGY. 


the  conclusion  must  be  endured.  To  attempt  to  resist  that 
conclusion,  is  to  resist  truth  itself;  to  be  afraid  to  do  jus- 
tice to  the  arguments  that  may  lead  to  that  conclusion,  is 
to  surrender  it,  without  resistance. 


THE    CHRISTIANS 

1 .  Use  precisely  the  same  ar- 
gument in  defence  of  their  sys- 
tem, only  denying  the  benefit 
of  it,  to  their  Pagan  adversa- 
ries. 


THE  PAGANS 

1.  Apologised  for  all  the  ap- 
parent absurdities  of  their  sys- 
tem, by  pleading  that  nothing  in 
it  was  to  be  understood  accord- 
ing to  the  gross  and  revolting 
sense  of  the  letter,  but  that  the  whole  was  to  be  explained 
conformably  to  a  mystical  allegorical  meaning  which  con- 
veyed the  most  sublime  truths. 

2.  "  For  those  who  preside  2.  God  also  hath  made  us 
over  the  holy  Scriptures,  phi-  able  ministers  of  the  New  Tes- 
losophise  over  them,  and  ex-  tament,  not  of  the  letter,  but  of 
pound  their  literal  sense  by  the  spirit.  (2  Corinth.  3,  C)— 
allegory." — Eusebiics,  concerning  Which  things  are  an  allegory. 
the  Therapeutan  piiesis.  (4  Gal.  24.) — St.  Paul,  concern^ 

ing  the  Christian  priests. 


CICERO. 
Concerning  the  Pagan  Augurs. 

3.  "  No  order  of  true  religion 
passes  over  the  law  concerning 
the  description  of  priests. 

4.  "  For  some  have  been  in- 
stituted for  the  business  of  paci- 
fying the  Gods. 

5.  "  To  preside  at  sacred  cer- 
emonies. 

6.  "  Others  to  interpret  the 
predictions  of  the  prophet. 

7.  "  Not  of  the  many,  lest 
the  number  should  be  infinite. 

8.  "  But  that  none  beside  the 
College  should  understand  those 
predictions  which  had  been  pub- 
licly recognized. 


THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 
Concerning  the  Christian ,  Bishops. 

3.  And  God  hath  set  some  in 
the  church — first  apostles,  sec- 
ondarily prophets,  thirdly  teach- 
ers.— 1  Corinth,  xii.  28. 

4.  O  Lord  spare  thy  people, 
and  be  not  angry  with  us  for 
ever. — Liturgy.* 

5.  Let  the  prophets  speak  two 
or  three,  and  let  the  others 
judge. —  1  Corinth,  xiv.  29. 

6.  And  let  one  interpret. — 1 
Corinth,  xiv.  27. 

7.  Let  it  be  by  two,  or  at  the 
most  by  three,  and  that  by 
course. — 1  Corinth,  xiv.  27, 

8.  Because  it  is  given  unto 
you  (the  College  of  Apostles) 
to  know  the  mysteries  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  but  to 
them  it  is  not  given. — Matt. 
xiii.  U. 


*  This  attribute  of  being  angry  for   ever,  is  peculiar  to  the  C'hristian  God,  and 
hu  become,  in  consequence,  peculiarly  characteristic  of  Cluristians. 


PAGAN    AND  CHRISTIAN  THEOLOGY. 


141 


CICERO. 

9.  "  For  augury,  or  the  power 
of  foretelling  future  events,  is 
the  greatest  and  most  excellent 
thing  in  the  republic,  and  na- 
turally allied  to  authority. 


10.  "  Nor  do  I  thus  think,  be- 
cause I  am  an  augur  myself; 
but  because  it  is  absolutely  ne- 
cessary for  us  to  think  so. 


11.  "  For  if  the  question  be 
of  legal  right,  what  is  greater 
than  the  power  to  put  away 
from  the  highest  governments, 
their  right  of  holding  counsels, 
and  issuing  decrees  :  or  to  abo- 
lish them  when  holden  }  What 
more  awful,  than  for  any  thing 
undertaken,  to  be  done  away, 
if  but  one  augur  hath  said  other- 
wise. 


NEW  TESTAMENT. 

9.  For  greater  is  he  that  pro- 
phesieth,  than  he  that  sp&aketh 
with  tongues.  Desire  spiritual 
gifts,  but  rather  that  ye  may 
prophecy.  He  that  prophe- 
sieth,  speaketh  unto  men  to 
edification  and  exhortation,  and 
comfort. — 1  Corinth,  xiv.  3. 

10.  Neither  have  I  written 
these  things,  that  it  should  be  so 
done  unto  me. — 1  Corinth,  ix. 
15. — Inasmuch  as  I  am  the  apos- 
tles of  the  Gentiles,  I  magnify 
mine  office.: — Rom.  xi.  13. 

11.  Dare  any  of  you,  having 
a  matter  against  another,  go  to 
law  before  the  unjust,  and  not 
before  the  saints.  Know  ye 
not  that  we  shall  judge  angels  .'' 
How  much  more  things  that 
pertain  to  this  life  ? — 1  Corinth, 
vi.  3. 

If  he  neglect  to  hear  the 
church,  let  him  be  unto  thee  as 
an  heathen  man,  and  a  pubhcan. 
— Matt,  xviii.    17. 

12.  Verily  I  say  unto  you, 
whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on 
earth,  shall  be  bound  in  heaven  ; 
and  whatsoever  ye  shall  loose  on 
earth,  shall  be  loosed  in  heav- 
en.— Matt.  xvii.  18. 


12.  "  What  more  magnificent 
than  to  be  able  to  decree,  that 
the  supreme  governors  should 
resign  their  magistracy  ?  What 
more  religious  than  to  give  or 
not  to  give  the  right  of  treating 
or  transacting  business  with  the  people  ?  What  than  to 
annul  a  law  if  it  hath  not  been  duly  passed,— and  for  noth- 
ing that  hath  been  done  by  the  government,  either  at  home 
or  abroad,  to  be  approved  by  any  one,  without  their  au- 
thority ?* — De  Legibus,  lib.ii.  12." 

*  No  wonder,  then,  that  such  a  power  was  not  allowed  to  be  held  in  separa- 
tion from  the  imperial  dignity  itself.  The  Jewish  Messiah,  or  Christ,  united  in  his 
own  person  the  several  offices  of  prophet,  priest,  and  king.  The  figures  of  Rom- 
ulus, the  founder  of  Rome,  represent  him  as  clad  in  the  trabea,  a  robe  of  state, 
which  implied  an  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  a  secular  dignity.  The  lituus,  or  staff 
of  augury  in  his  hand,  is  still  retained  as  the  crosier  of  our  Christian  bishops. 
"This  latter  mark  of  distinction  (the  episcopal  crosier)  usually  attends  the  repre- 
sentations of  the  heads  of  Julius  Cajsar  in  old  gems  and  medals,  in  signification 
that  he  was  high-priest  and  king,  by  the  same  right  as  Romulus  had  been."  BelPs 
Pantheon  in  loco  quo.  Augustus,  Vespasian,  Verus,  &c.  are  in  like  manner  ac- 
companied with  the  insignia  of  augury.  So  sacred  were  these  holy  orders,  that 
none  who  had  once  been  a  member  of  the  sacred  college,  could  ever  be  degrad- 


142  PAGAN    AND    CHRISTIAN    THEOLOGY. 

PHILO.  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

13.  "In  addition  to  these  cir-  13.  To  all  the  saints  in  Christ 
cumstances,  Philo  describes  the  Jesus  which  are  at  Phihppi  with 
order  of  preferment  among  those  the  bishops  and  deacons. — 
who  aspire  to  ecclesiastical  min-     1  Philip,  i. 

istrations,  and  the  offices  of  the  For  they  that  have  used  the 
deacons,  and  the  pre-eminency  office  of  a  deacon  well,  pur- 
above  all  of  the  bishop." — See  chase  to  themselves  a  good  de- 
chap.  10.  gree. 

If  a  man  desire  the  office  of  a 

bishop,  he  desireth  a  good  work. 

—1  Timothy  iii.  13. 


ROYAL    PRIESTS. 

Among  the  ancient  Greeks,  the  dig-nity  of  the  priesthood 
was  esteemed  so  great  in  most  of  their  cities;  and  espe- 
cially at  Athens,  as  to  be  joined  with  that  of  the  civil  ma- 
gistrate. Thus  Anius,  in  Virgil,  was  king  of  Delos,  and 
priest  of  Apollo.*  In  Egypt,  the  kings  were  all  priests  ; 
and  if  any  one  who  was  not  of  the  royal  family,  usurped 
the  kingdom,  he  was  obliged  to  be  consecrated  to  the 
priesthood,  before  he  could  ascend  the  throne.  At  Spar- 
ta, the  kings,  immediately  upon  their  promotion,  took  upon 
them  the  two  priesthoods  of  the  heavenly,  and  the  Lace- 
demonian Jupiter  ;  and  all  the  sacrifices  for  the  safety  of 
the  commonwealth,  were  offered  by  them  only. 


SUBORDINATE  CLERGY. 

Besides  these  royal  priests,  there  were  others  taken  from 
the  body  of  the  people,  and  consecrated  to  the  service  of 
religion.  These  were  all  accounted  the  ministers  of  the 
gods,  and  by  them  commissioned  to  dispense  their  favour 
to  mankind.  Whoever  was  admitted  to  this  holy  office, 
was  obliged  to  'be  of  the  most  exemplary  and  virtuous 
character.  They  were  required  to  be  upright  in  mind  and 
pure  in  heart  and  life,  as  well  as  perfect  ("(ff^fic)  in  body  : 
they  were  to  live  chastely  and  temperately,  abstaining 
from  those  pleasures  which  were  considered  innocent  in 
other  men.  After  their  admission  into  holy  orders, 
though  marriage  was  not  altogether  forbidden,  they  were 
obliged  and  expected  to  preserve  the  most  rigid  chastity. 

ed  :  the  commission  of  the  greatest  enormity  was  not  held  competent  to  effect  their 
t7iti<;/<'a."fi&/e  sanctity  of  character,  or  to  forfeit  their  titie  of  The  Reverend  ; 
which  their  descendants  still  retain,  in  a  never-interrupted  succession  of  inheritance 
from  their  Pagan  ancestors.        ^ 

♦  Rex  Anius,  Rex  idem  hominum,  PhiMbique  Sacerdos. —  Virg.  AEn.  3,  v.  80. 


PAGAN  AND  CHRISTIAN  THEOLOGT.  143 

They  endeavoured  to  weaken  or  overcome  "  all  the 
sinful  lusts  of  the  flesh,"  by  drinking  the  juice  of  hem- 
lock, and  by  strewing  the  herb  agnus  castus,  or  chaste  lamb 
under  their  bed  clothes,  which  was  believed  to  possess  re- 
frigerating qualities. 

THE    PRIESTS    OF    CYBELE 

Who  held  the  dignity  of  Theotokos,  Deipara,  or  Mother 
of  God,  which  has  since  been  transferred  to  the  Virgin  Ma- 
ry, so  conscientiously  cut  themselves  off  from  the  faculty 
of  sinful  sensations,  as  to  deserve  the  commendation  of 
Christ  himself— Matt.  xix.  12  ;  and  to  be  imitated  in  so  un- 
equivocal a  proof  of  sincere  devotion,  by  tlie  most  learned 
and  distinguished  of  Christian  bishops, 
&c. 


PARASITES   OR    DOMESTIC  CHAPLAINS. 

Another  holy  order  of  priests,  was  that  of  the  Parasiti, 
or  Parasites,  whose  office  was  to  gather  from  the  husband- 
men, the  corn  that  was  to  be  set  aside  for  the  services  of 
the  ministry.  It  was  at  last  an  office  of  great  honour  ; 
the  Parasites  being  by  the  ancient  laws  reckoned  among 
the  chief  magistrates.  In  every  village  of  the  Athenians, 
they  maintained  these  priests  at  the  public  expense  ;  but 
afterwards,  to  ease  the  commonwealth  of  this  burden,  the 
wealthier  sort  were  obliged  to  entertain  them  at  their  own 
tables,  whence  the  word  parasite,  in  later  times,  has  been 
put  for  a  flatterer,  who,  for  the  sake  of  a  dinner,  conforms 
to  every  one's  humour.  This  holy  order  of  Parasites,  is 
continued  in  our  Christian  Church,  in  precisely  the  same 
character  and  function,  under  the  less  invidious  name  of 
domestic  chaplains,  who,  hanging  about  the  establishment 
of  princes  and  nobles,  generally  contrive  to  worm  them- 
selves into  the  most  lucrative  ecclesiastical  benefices  up- 
on the  well-known  economy. 

"  Non  missura  est  cutem  nisi  plena  cruoris  hirudo.*" 


CONVERSION     FROM      PAGANISM      TO     CHRISTIANITY,    BROUGHT 
ABOUT    ENTIRELY  BY  A  TRANSFER  OF  PROPERTY. 

Notwithstanding  the   conversion  of  Constantine  to  the 
Christian    faith,   the  title,  the  ensigns,    and  the  preroga- 

*  The  leech  will  not  drop  from  your  skin  till  it  is  full  of  blood. — Horace. 


144  CONVERSION. 

tives  of  sovereign  pontiff  were  accepted  without  hesita- 
tion, by  seven  sucessive  Christian  emperors.  Gratian 
was  the  first  who  refused  the  pontifical  robe*,  and  threw 
oflf  the  badges  of  Paganism  ;  for  though  he  retained  the 
title  of  Sovereign  Pontiff',  he  performed  no  part  of  its  func- 
tions.f  From  motives  no  doubt  of  the  most  disinterested 
piety,  "  this  emperor  seized  the  lands  and  endowments 
which  had  been  allotted  to  maintain  the  priests  and  sacri- 
fices of  the  ancient  Paganism,  and  appropriated  them  to 
his  own  use. "I     4.  d.  382. 

We  have  yet  extant,  and  happily  I  have  here  on  my 
table,  the  celebrated  oration  delivered  by  Julius  Firmicius 
Maternus,  to  the  Emperors  Constantius  and  Constans, 
the  sons  and  successors  of  Constantino  the  Great  ;  calling 
on  those  holy  Emperors,  to  seize  all  the  remaining  proper- 
ty of  the  professors  «of  Paganism,  which  his  father  had 
spared,  and  thus  by  reducing  them  to  beggary,  to  starve 
them  into  salvation. 

"  Take  away,  take  away,  in  perfect  security,  (exclaims 
this  disinterested  Christian  orator.)  0  !  most  holy  empe- 
rors, take  away  all  the  ornaments  of  their  temples.  Let 
the  fire  of  the  mint,  or  the  flames  of  the  mines,  melt  down 
their  gods.  Seize  upon  all  their  wealthy  endowments, 
and  turn  them  to  your  own  use  and  property. §  And  0  ! 
most  sacred  emperors,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  for  you 
to  revenge  and  punish  this  evil.  You  are  commanded  by 
the  law  of  the  Most  High  God,  to  persecute  all  sorts  of 
idolatry  with  the  utmost  severity  :  hear  and  commend  to 
your  own  sacred  understandings,  what  God  himself  com- 
mands, He  commands  you  not  to  spare  your  son,  or 
your  brother  ;  he  bids  you  plunge  the  avenging  knife 
even  into  the    heart  of    your  wife  that  sleeps   in  your 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  3,  p.  499. 

t  Bell's  Panth.  vol.  1,  p.  19.  i  Lardner,  vol.  4,  p.  455. 

§  Toliite,  tollitesecuri,  sacratissimi  Imperatores,  omamenta  temploium.  Deos 
istos,  aut  inonetoe  ignis,  aut  metalloium  coquat  flainma.  Donaria  universa  ad  util- 
itatein  vestram,  dominiumque  transferte,  (p.  59.)  Sed  et  vobis,  Sacratissimi  Im- 
peratores, ad  vindicanduni  et  punienjjum  hoc  malum  necessitas  imperatur,  et  hoc 
vobis  Dei  surnmi  lege  prsncipitur,  ut  severitas  vestra  idolatrise  facinus  omnifarium 
persequatur.  Audite  el  commendate  Sanctis  sensibus  vestris  quid  de  isto  facinore 
Deus  jubeat.  Nee  filio  jubet  parci,  nee  fratri,  et  per  araatam  conjugem  quie  est 
in  sinu  tuo,  gladium  vindicem  ducit :  amicum  quoque  sublimi  severitate  persequi- 
tur,  et  ad  discerpenda  sacrilegorum  corpora,  omnis  populus  arniatur.  Integris 
etiam  civitatibus,  hi  in  isto  fuerint  facinore  deprehensae,  decernuntur  excidia.  Mia- 
ericordia;  suae  vobis  Sacratissimi  Imperatores,  Deus  summus  pnemia  pollicetur. — 
Facite  itaque  quod  jubet,  camplete  quod  praEcipit,  (p.  63.)  De  Errore 
Prof.  Rel. 


CONVERSION.  145 

bosom  ;  to  persecute  your  dearest  friend  with  a  sublime 
severity,  and  to  arm  your  whole  people  against  these 
sacrilegious  Pagans,  and  tear  them  limb  from  limb.  Yea ! 
even  whole  cities,  if  you  should  find  this  guilt  in  them, 
must  be  cut  off.  0!  n\pst  holy  emperors!  God  promises 
you  the  rewards  of  his  mercy,  upon  condition  of  your  thus 
acting.  Do  therefore  what  he  commands — complete  what 
he  prescribes." 

Nothing  can  be  more  orthodox  and  truly  Christian  than 
this  oi-ation.  It  presents  us  a  faithful  picture  of  the  genius 
and  character  of  primitive  Christianity.  The  reader  will 
perhaps  think  he  has  enough  of  it.  The  Orator  of  the 
Areopagus,  however  he  might  have  transgressed  the  laws 
of  his  country,  transgressed  not  the  fair  sense  of  historic 
fact  and  license  of  oratorical  figuration,  when  he  said, 
"  Astonished  Paganism  grew  pale,  when  she  saw  the  blood- 
stained banner  of  the  cross,  and  from  her  innocent  hand, 
the  flowery  chaplets  of  the  chaste  Diana,  and  of  the  hos- 
pitable Jupiter,  down  dropt,  and  bloody  treason  triumphed 
over  them!" 

We  have,  of  the  same  age,  a  beautiful  contrast  to  this 
spiritual  oration  of  Firmicius,  in  an  epistle  of  the  Pagan 
orator,  Libanius,  in  which  he  discovers  at  the  same  time, 
what  the  tempers  and  dispositions  of  a  Pagan  were, 
towards  those  who  left  the  faith  of  their  ancestors,  and 
embraced  the  new-fangled  doctrines  of  Christianity. 
"  Orion,  (writes  he),  was  my  friend,  when  he  was  in 
prosperity,  and  now  he  is  in  affliction,  I  have  the  same 
disposition  towards  him.  If  he  thinks  differently  from  us, 
concerning  the  d^ity,  he  hurts  himself,  being  deceived; 
but  it  is  not  fit  that  his  friends  should  therefore  look  upon 
him  as  an  enemy."*  Alas!  since  one  who  had  once  been 
a  minister  of  the  gospel,  but  is  now  prisoner  for  his  con- 
scientious opposition  to  it,  fell  into  aflliction  and  differ- 
ence of  opinion,  concerning  the  deity,  it  was  not  only 
forgotten  that  he  had  once  been  a  friend,  but  that  he  had 
ever  been  a  fellow  creature,  a  brother,  or  a  son.f 

We  have  also  still  extant,  the  petition  of  Symmachus, 
the  high  priest  of  Paganism,  which  he  presented  to  the 
Emperors  Valentinian,  Theodosius  and  Arcadius,  and  for 
having  delivered  which,  the  Emperor  Theodosius  com- 
manded the  reverend  orator  to  descend  from  the  pulpit, 
and  go  immediately  into  exile — (Oakham!) 

*  Epistle  730,  p.  349,  Lardneio,  citante  in  loco  quo. 

t  See  Origenes  Christiana,  I8th  Letter  in  "  The  Lion,"  vol.  1. 

14 


146  CONVERSION. 

But  impious  and  unreasonable  as  it  was  held  to  be  in 
Christian  ears,  it  was  not  worse  than  of  a  piece  with  the 
extract  which  I  here  subjoin: — 

"  Does  not  the  relig-ion  of  the  Romans  come  under  the 
protection  of  the  Roman  laws?  By  what  name  shall  we 
call  an  alienation  of  rights,  which  no  laws  or  circum- 
stances of  things  ever  justified?  Freed  men  receive  lega- 
cies, nor  are  even  slaves  deprived  of  the  privilege  of 
receiving  what  is  left  to  them  by  icill — they  are  only  the 
noble  Vestals,  and  the  attendants  on  the  sacred  rites  upon 
which  the  public  welfare  depends,  who  are  deprived  of  the 
privilege  of  receiving  estates  legally  bequeathed  to  them. 
The  Treasury  detains  the  lands  which  were  given  to  the 
Vestals  and  their  officers  by  our  dying  progenitors.  Do 
but  consult  your  own  generous  minds,  and  you  will  not 
think  that  those  things  belong  to  the  public,  which  you 
have  already  appropriated  to  the  use  of  others.  If  length 
of  time  be  of  weight  in  matters  of  religion,  surely  we 
ought  to  preserve  that  faith  which  has  subsisted  for  so 
many  ages,  and  to  follow  our  parents,  who  have  so  happily 
followed  theirs.  We  ask  for  no  other  state  of  religion  than 
that  which  secured  the  empire  to  your  blessed  Father, 
and  gave  him  the  happiness  of  a  legitimate  issue  to  succeed 
him.  That  blessed  prince  now  looks  down  from  heaven, 
and  beholds  the  tears  of  the  priests,  and  considers  the 
breach  of  their  privileges  as  a  reflection  upon  himself."* 

The  Holy  Father  and  Bishop  St.  Ambrose,  strenuously 
opposed  this  petition,  and  ingeniously  argued  from  a  text 
of  scripture,  which  served  to  carry  the  point  in  his  days, 
but  which  since  has  become  apocryphal,  and  consequently 
is  no  longer  to  be  found;  but  this  it  was,  "  all  the  earth 
belongeth  unto  the  righteous,!  but  to  the  infidels  not  one 
penny,"  (obelus). 

Lardner  is  anxious  to  vindicate  the  disinterestedness 
of  St.  Ambrose,  who  opposed  himself  to  this  unreasonable 
remonstrance  of  "  these  poor  blind  benighted  Pagans;"  and 
puts  in  proof,  the  letter  written  to  the  Emperor  Eugenius 
in  the  year  392,  in  which  St.  Ambrose  declares,  that  "those 
revenues  had  not  been  taken  away  by  his  advice,  only  he 
had  advised  that  when  once  they  were  taken  away,  they 
should  not  be  given  back  again."  That's  Christian  all 
over!  as  much  as  to  say,  "I'll  have  nothing  to  do  with 
thieving,  but  I'll  go  your  halves!" 

*  Citante  in  loco,  Lardnero. 

t  *'  The  righteous  .-"  who  could  that  be  but  the  orthodox  clei]gy? 


CONVERSION.  147 

The  reader  has  only  to  turn  his  eye  to  our  table  of  the 
Ecclesiastical  Revenues  at  this  day,  and  he  may  solve  as 
he  shall  please,  the  important  question — whether,  if  these 
revenues  were  taken  away  from  the  church,  and  trans- 
ferred to  the  professors  of  as  false  a  religion  as  ever 
was  on  earth,  our  churchmen  would  not  run  after  the 
revenues,  and  leave  Christianity  to  the  fate  of  Paganism. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  in  the  Corpus  juris,  or  whole 
body  of  Roman  law,  notwithstanding  all  the  dreadful 
stories  of  persecutions  and  martyrdom,  which  Christians 
relate  that  they  have  endured  from  the  Pagan  magistrates, 
there  never  was  on  record  any  law  whatever,  that  had 
been  enacted  against  Christians — while  there  were  and 
have  been  the  most  sanguinary  laws  enacted  for  the 
prosecution  and  eternal  persecution  of  unbelievers. 

By  a  law  of  the  Emperors  Valentinius  and  Theodosius, 
whoever  had  been  known  to  have  apostatised  from  the 
Christian  religion,  was  debarred  from  the  right  of  be- 
queathing property  by  will — nor  was  the  Pagan  religion 
effectually  suppressed,  till  the  profession  of  it  was  prohib- 
ited under  the  penalty  of  death.  Thousands  suffered  that 
penalty,  whom  we  are  not  allowed  to  consider  as  martyrs. 
It  is  well  known,  that  the  most  holy  and  truly  Christian 
Emperor  Theodosius,  put  in  practice  the  advice  of  Julius 
Firmicius,  upon  the  heterodox  citizens  of  Thessalonica,  to 
the  letter.  He  put  the  whole  city  to  the  sword,  and  "  ut- 
terly destroyed  every  thing  that  breathed,  even  as  the 
Lord  God  of  Israel  commanded." — An  example  which  was 
followed  in  like  manner,  on  the  ever  memorable  day  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  August  24,  1572,  when  seventy  thousand 
Protestants,  subjects  of  the  most  Christian  Charles  IX., 
were  butchered  throughout  France,  at  the  instigation  of 
his  pious  mother,  Catherine  de  Medicis.  Mr.  Higgins,  a 
sincere  believer,  thus  concludes  his  beautiful  work  : — 
"  Look  at  Ireland,  look  at  Spain,  in  short,  look  every  where, 
and  you  will  see  the  priests  reeking  with  gore.  They  have 
converted,  and  are  converting,  populous  and  happy  nations 
into  deserts,  and  have  made  our  beautiful  world  into  a 
slaughter-house,  drenched  with  blood  and  tears." — Celtic 
Druids,  p.  299. 


148 


:SCULAPIUS — JESUS    CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

-ESCULAPIUS JESUS    CHRIST. 


^SCULAPIUS. 

Mr.  Addison's  versification 
of  tlie  prophecies  which  fore- 
told the  life  and  actions  of 
^sculapius,  from  the  Meta- 
morphoses of  Ovid. 

Once,    as   the    sacred   infant   she   sur- 
veyed, 
The   god   was  kindled    in   the   raving 

maid*  ; 
And   thus    she    uttered    her    prophetic 

tale, 
"  Hail,  great  physician  of  the  world  ! 

all  hail. 
Hail  mighty   infant,  who   in   years  to 

come, 
Shalt  heal  the  nations,  and  defraud  the 

tomb ! 
Swift  be  thy  growth,  thy  triumphs  un- 

confined, 
Make   kingdoms   thicker,  and  increase 

mankind. 
Thy  daring  art  shall  animate  the  dead, 
And  draw  the  thunder   on   thy   guilty 

head  ; 
Then  shalt  thou  die,  but  from  the  dark 


Shalt   rise   victorious,   and  be  twice  a 
god." 

Reason  at  once  rejecte  all 
ideas  of  prophecy,  as  being 

*  Ergo    ubi    fatidicos    concepit    mente 

furores 
Incaluitque  Deo,  quem  clansum  pectore 

habebat 
Aspicit     infantem.      Totique     salutifer 

orbi 
Cresce    puer    dixit,    tibi    se    mortalia 

sa^pe 
Corpora  debebunt :    Animas    tibi  red- 

dere  ademptas 
Fas  erit.     Idque  semel  Dis  Indignantibus 

autius 
Posee  dare    hoc   iterum  flamma  prohi- 

bebere  avita 
Eque  Deo  corpus  fies  exangue  ;  Deus- 

que 
dui  modo  corpus  eras,  et  bis  tua  fata 

novabis. 

Ovid  Met.  Lib.  2,  lin.  640. 


JESUS    CHRIST. 

Mr.  Pope's  versification  of 
the  prophecies  which  fore- 
told the  life  and  actions  of 
Jesus  Christ,  from  the  pro- 
phecies of  Isaiah. 

Ye  nymphs  of  Solyma  begin  the  song! 

O  thou  my  voice  inspire, 

That  touched  Isaiah's  hallowed  lips 
with  fire. 

Rapt  into  future  times  the  bard  be- 
gun— 

A  virgin  shall  conceive,  a  virgin  bear  a 
son. 

Swift  fly  the  years,  and  rise  th'  expect- 
ed morn — 

O  spring  to  light,  auspicious  babe  be 
bom. 

He  from  thick  films  shall  purge  the  vis- 
ual ray. 

And  on  the  sightless  eyeball  pour  the 
day  : 

'Tis  he,  th'  obstructed  paths  of  sound 
shall  clear, 

And  bid  new  music  charm  th'  unfold- 
ing ear  ; 

The  dumb  shall  sing,  the  Ia.je  his  crutch 
forego, 

And  leap  exulting  like  the  bounding 
roe. 

"  And  there  was  one  Anna, 
a  prophetess,the  daughter  of 
Phanuel,  of  the  tribe  of  Aser. 
She  was  of  a  great  age,  and 
had  lived  with  a  husband 
seven  years  from  her  virgin- 
ity. And  she  was  a  widow 
of  about  four-score  and  four 
years,  which  departed  not,| 
from  the  temple,  but  served 
God  with  fastings  and  pray- 
ers night  and  day.  And  she 
coming  in  at  that  instant, 
gave  thanks  likewise  unto 
the  Lord,  and  spake  of  him 


JESCULAPIUS JESUS    CHRIST.  149 

the  most  childish  and  foolish  to  all  them  that  looked  for 

conceit  that   could  possibly  redemption  in  Israel,   Luke 

cross  the  mind;  a  knowledge  ii.  36.''^ 

of  future  events  being-  no  This  is  one  of  the  many- 
more  possible  to  the  human  passages  which  the  Unitari- 
mind,  than  to  fly  in  the  air  is  an  editors  of  the  improved 
to  the  body.  We  may  be  told  version  wish  to  have  reject- 
sometimes  of  an  extraordi-  ed,  assigning  as  one  among 
nary  guess,  as  we  may  of  a  their  several  reasons  against 
wonderful  jump;  but  neither  it,  that  "  though  found  in  all 
flight  nor  prophecy  are  at-  manuscripts  and  versions 
tributes  of  man — and  no  ra-  now  extant,  it  was  intro- 
tional  man  will  consider  the  duced  with  a  view  to  ele- 
pretence  to  such  a  faculty,  vate  the  crucified  Jesus  to 
in  any  other  light,  than  as  a  the  dignity  of  the  heroes 
certain  evidence  of  impos-  and  demigods  of  the  heathen 
ture,  by  whomsoever  or  in  mythology." — p.  121. 
what  cause  soever,  ad- 
vanced.* 

The  worship  of  ^sculapius  was  first  established  in 
Egypt,  the  fruitful  parent  of  all  varieties  of  superstition. 
The  name  is  derived  from  the  Oriental  languages.  Euse- 
bius  speaks  of  an  Asclepios,  or  ^sculapius,  an  Egyptian, 
and  a  famous  physician.  He  is  well  known  as  the  God  of 
the  art  of  healing,  and  his  Egyptian  or  Phoenician  origin, 
leads  us  irresistibly  to  associate  his  name  and  character 
with  that  of  the  ancient  Therapeuts,  or  Society  of  Heal- 
ers, established  in  the  vicinity  of  Alexandria,  whose  sa- 
cred writings  Eusebius  has  ventured  to  acknowledge, 
were  the  first  types  of  our  four  gospels.  The  miracles  of 
healing  and  of  raising  the  dead,  recorded  in  those  scrip- 
tures, are  exactly  such  as  these  superstitious  quacks 
would  be  likely  to  ascribe  to  the  founder  of  their  fra- 
ternity. 

*  A  far  more  specific  prediction  than  any  that  theology  can  pretend,  occurs  in 
the  Medea  of  Seneca,  which  seems  in  the  age  of  Nero,  to  have  foretold  the  future 
discovery  of  America,  by  Christopher  Columbus,  an  event  which  occurred  not 
till  1400  years  after  the  publication  of  the  prophecy.     This  it  is — 
"  Venient  annis  ssecula  seris, 
Quibus  Oceanus  vincula  rerum. 
Laxet,  et  ingens  pateat  tellus 
Tethysque  novos  detegat  orbes 
Nee  sit  terris  Ultima  Thule." 
"  The  times  will  come  in  late  years,  when  ocean  may  relax  the  chain  of  things, 
and  a  vast  continent  may  open  ;   the  sea  may  uncover  newr  worlds,  and  Thule, 
cease  to  be  the  last  of  lands." 

14* 


150  iESCULAPIDS. 

"  Being-  honoured  as  a  god  in  Phcenicia  and  Egypt,  his 
worship  passed  into  Greece,  and  was  established  first  at 
Epidaurus,  a  city  of  Peloponnesus,  bordering  on  the  sea; 
where  probably  some  colonies  first  settled:  a  circumstance 
sufficient  to  induce  the  Greeks  to  give  out  that  this  god 
was  a  native  of  Greece." — BeWs  Pantheon,  p.  27. 

Among  the  Greeks,  it  was  believed  that  the  god  Apollo 
himself  had  represented  iEsculapius  as  his  son  by  a  voice 
from  the  oracle  (Ibid.):  and  it  is  a  striking  coincidence  of 
fact,  if  it  be  no  more  than  a  coincidence,  that  we  find  the 
Christian  Father,  Eusebius,  attempting  to  prove  the  divin- 
ity of  Jesus  Christ,  from  an  answer  given  by  the  same 
oracle;*  while  the  text  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew 
iii.  17,  written  certainly  much  later  than  those  answers, 
runs,  "  Lo,  a  voice  from  heaven,  saying,  This  is.  my  beloved  son., 
in  xohom  I  am  well  pleased,''''  By  the  mother  side,  jEscu- 
lapius  was  the  son  of  Coronis,  who  had  received  the 
embraces  of  God,  but  for  whom,  unfortunately,  the  wor- 
shippers of  her  son  have  forgotten  to  claim  the  honour 
of  perpetual  virginity.  To  conceal  her  pregnancy  from 
her  parents,  she  went  to  Epidaurus,  and  was  there  de- 
livered of  a  son,  whom  she  exposed  upon  the  Mount  of 
Myrtles;!  when  Aristhenes,|  the  goatherd, §  in  search  of 
a  goat  and  a  dog  missing  from  his  fold,  discovered  the 
child,  whom  he  would  have  carried  to  his  home,  had  he 
not,  in  approaching  to  lift  him  up,  perceived  his  head  en- 
circled with  fiery  rays,||  which  made  him  to  believe  the 
child  to  be  divine.  The  voice  of  fame  soon  published 
the  birth  of  a  miraculous  infant;  upon  which  the  people 
flocked  from  all  quarters  to  behold  this  heaven-born 
child.lF 

It  was  believed  that  "  iEsculapius  was  so  expert  in 
medicine,  as  not  only  to  cure  the  sick,  but  even  to  raise 
the  dead."  Ovid  says  he  did  this  by  Hyppolitus  (and 
Julius  says  the  same  of  Tyndarus) ;  that  Pluto  cited  him 
before  the  tribunal  of  Jupiter,  and  complained  that  his 

*  Dem.  Evan,  quoted,  translated  and  commented  on,  in  the  author's  Syntag- 
ma, p.  116. 

t  Mount  of  Myrtles — why  not  Mount  of  Olives  ? 

t  Aristhenes — why  not  Joseph  ? 

§   Goatherd — why  not  Shepherd  ? 

II  Thus  all  Christian  painters  have  depicted  the  infant  Jesus. 

C  Veiled  in  flesh,  the  (Jodhead,  He- 
ir Heaven-horn  child. —      Hail  th'  incarnate  Deity  ! 
Equally  applicable  to    ^scu- J  Mild  he  lays  his  glory  by, 
lapius  as  to  Jesus,  is  the  divine  ]  Born  that  man  no  more  might  die  ; 
doggerel  annexed,  Born  to  raise  the  sons  of  earth  ; 

I^Born  to  give  them  sesond  birth  ! 


^SCULAPIUS.  151 

empire  was  considerably  diminished,  and  in  danger  of  be- 
coming desolate,  from  the  cures  performed  by  ^scula- 
pius  ;  so  that  Jupiter,  in  wrath,  slew  him  with  a  thunder- 
bolt. Within  a  short  time  after  his  death,  he  was  deified, 
and  received  divine  honours.  His  worship  was  first  es- 
tablished at  Epidaurus,  and  soon  after  propagated  through- 
out all  Greece.  The  cock*  and  serpent  were  especially 
consecrated  to  him,  and  his  divinity  was  recognized  and 
honoured  in  the  last  words  of  the  dying  Socrates,  "  Re- 
member that  we  owe  a  cock  to  iEsculapius."  At  a  time 
when  the  Romans  were  infested  with  the  plague,  having 
consulted  their  sacred  books,  they  learned  that,  in  order 
to  be  delivered  from  it,  they  were  to  go  in  quest  of 
^sculapius  at  Epidaurus;  accordingly,  an  embassy  was 
appointed  of  ten  senators,  at  the  head  of  whom  was 
Quintus  Ogulnius;  and  the  worship  of  ^sculapius  was 
established  at  Rome  a.  u.  c.  462,  that  is.  Before  Christ,  288. 
But  the  most  remarkable  coincidence  is,  that  the  worship 
of  this  god  continued  with  scarcely  diminished  splendour, 
even  for  several  hundred  years  after  the  establishment  of 
Christianity.  We  have  the  best  and  most  rationally  at- 
tested account  of  a  cure  brought  about  by  the  influence  of 
imagination  in  connection  with  his  name,  as  late  as  the 
year  485  a.  d. 

Marinus,  a  scholar  of  the  philosopher  Proclus,  a.  d.  485, 
in  his  life  of  his  master,  says,  "  I  might  relate  very  many 
theurgic  operations  of  this  blessed  man:  one,  out  of  innu- 
merable, I  shall  mention;  and  it  is  wonderful  to  hear. — 
Asclipigenia,  daughter  of  Archiades  and  Plutarcha,  and 
wife  of  Theagenes,  to  whom  we  are  much  indebted,  when 
Bhe  was  yet  but  a  young  maiden,  and  lived  with  her 
parents,  was  seized  with  a  grievous  distemper,  incurable 
by  the  physicians.  All  help  from  the  physicians  failing, 
as  in  other  cases,  so  now  in  this  also;  her  father  applied 
to  the  sheet-anchor,  that  is,  to  the  philosopher,  as  his  good 
Saviour, \  earnestly  entreating  him  to  pray  for  his  daughter, 
whose  condition  was  not  unknown  to  him.     He  therefore, 

*  The  serpent  is  prime  agent  in  the  story  of  human  redemption;  and  the  cock 
really  bears  a  very  important  character  in  the  Gospel,  in  rebuking  Peter  for  curs- 
ing and  swearing. 

t  The  good  Saviour,  which  was  the  express  title  of  ^sculapius,  is  given  by 
Eusebius,  in  the  mouth  of  his  fabricated  personage,  Abgarus,  to  the  no  less  fabri- 
cated Jesus  : 

A^yaooc  roKctqx^?  Edtaar^?  J>;ffe  aontjoi  ayaSoi  araifarsvri  iv  rorcai  ItQoaoXvfitov 
Xaiqtiv. — Lib.  1.  c.  13,  lit.  D.  Ecd.  Hist.  "  Abgarus,  toparch  of  Edessa,  to 
J«sus,  the  good  Saviour,  who  bath  shone  forth  in  Jerusalem — ^greeting  1 


152  ^SCITLAPIUS. 

taking-  with  him  Pericles  of  Lydia,  who  was  also  a  phi- 
losopher and  worthy  of  that  name,*  went  to  the  temple  of 
jEsculapius,  intending  to  pray  for  the  sick  young  woman 
to  the  god;  for  the  city  (Athens)  was  at  that  time  blessed 
in  him,  and  still  enjoyed  the  undemolished  temple  of  The 
Saviour.  But  while  he  was  praying  according  to  the 
ancient  form,t  a  sudden  change  appeared  in  the  damsel, 
and  she  immediately  became  convalescent  ;  for  The 
Saviour,  as  being  God,  easily  healed  her." 

With  respect  to  the  miracles  ascribed  to  ^sculapius, 
and  continuing  to  be  performed  for  so  many  ages  by  the 
efficacy  of  fait k  in  his  name,    and   in   answer   to   prayers 
offered  up  in  his  temple;  the  power  and  influence  of  ima- 
gination, in  producing  changes  in  the  animal  economy  to 
an  indefinite  extent,  is  well   known   to  physicians;  and, 
without   intending  any  injurious  imposture,  the   most  be- 
nevolent and  intelligent   medical   men   at  this  day  avail 
themselves  of  the  patient's  superstition,  to  aid  and  second 
the  operations  of  medicine.     A  strongly  excited  expecta- 
tion of  relief  will  often  produce  such  an  improved  tone  of 
muscular  action,  and  such  a  more  vigorous  flow  of  the 
animal  spirits,  as  will  be  sufficient  to  throw  off  the  obstruc- 
tions in  which  the  disease  originated,  and  thus  effect  many 
extraordinary  and  otherwise  unaccountable  cures.  A  med- 
ical friend  once  succeeded  in  curing  a  poor  man  of  chronic 
rheumatism,  after  he  had  followed  the  prescriptions  of  the 
ablest  physicians  without  receiving  the  least  benefit, '  by 
working  upon  his  imagination  to  make  sure  of  receiving  a 
cure,  by  taking  seven  tea-spoonfuls  of  the  decoction  of  a 
brickbat  that  should  be  found  in  a  churchyard,  the  brickbat 
to  be  boiled  for  seven  hours,  in  seven  quarts  of  water;  the 
essential  conditions  of  the  miracle  being  that  its  efficacy 
was  not  to  be  doubted;  and  the  whole  process  to  be  kept  an 
inviolable  secret.     This  prescription  he  affected  to  trans- 
late out  of  the  spider-leg  text  of  a  Greek  folio.      The  cure 
was  perfect.  The  primitive  Christians  were  content  never 
to  call  in  question  the  miracles  pretended  by  their  Pagan 

*  I  preserve  so  much  of  the  original  text  as  is  essential  to  the  proof  of  the  mat- 
ter before  us: — 

Avijci  itg  ro  atfxlrfnsiov  TCQoatv^ofiBvo?  Toi  &tw  vntq  rrn  xafivaatiq.  Kai  yaq 
i^vrvxii  T8T«  ij  tcoXk;  Tore  xai  tixiv  «Ti  arcoQ^tjTov  to  t«  SantiQog  uqov.  Evxo- 
ijtr«  OVT8  Tov  ap;foioTfpoy  t^ottov,  a^Qoa  ^uzafioXti  ntqi  t»;v  xoqi]v  Kfantto,  xat 
qaarunirj  i^aiipvtjg  jyiyvt to.  Feia  yuQ  o  SiarriQ  <oart  -^tog  lagaro. — Quoted  ia 
Lardner,  vol.  4,  p.  410. 

t  The  ancient  form,  Corsitaa;  «*  Our  Father,  which  art  in  heaven,  hallowed 
bo  thy  name  ;  thy  kingdom  come,  thy  will  be  done  on  earth,  as  it  is  in 
heaven,"  &c. 


.ESCULAPIUS.  153 

adversaries,  so  they  could  get  their  own  similar  preten- 
sions recog-nised.  Their  argument  was  one  that  was  well 
contrived  to  evade  all  possibility  of  being  determined:  the 
Pagan  miracles  were  wrought  by  the  power  of  dasmons, 
while  their's  were  to  be  ascribed  to  the  True  God. 

Justin  Martyr,  in  his  Apology  for  the  Christian  Religion, 
addressed  to  the  emperor  Hadrian,  seems  to  seek  rather 
an  excuse  for  the  Christian  miracles,  than  to  consider 
them  as  resting  on  any  grounds  of  evidence: — "  As  to  our 
Jesus  curing  the  lame,  and  the  paralytic,  and  such  as  were 
cripples  from  their  birth,  this  is  little  more  than  what  you 
say  of  your  ^Esculapius."* 

"  In  the  performance  of  their  miracles,"  says  Dr.  Con- 
vers  Middleton,  "  the  primitive  Christians  were  always 
charged  with  fraud  and  imposture  by  their  adversaries. 
Lucian  tells  us,  that  whenever  any  crafty  juggler,  expert 
in  his  trade,  and  who  knew  how  to  make  a  right  use  of 
things,  went  over  to  the  Christians,  he  was  sure  to  grow 
rich  immediately,  by  making  a  prey  of  their  simplicity  ; 
and  Celsus  represents  all  the  Christian  wonder-workers  as 
mere  vagabonds  and  common  cheats,  who  rambled  about 
to  play  their  tricks  at  fairs  and  markets,  not  in  the  circles 
of  the  wiser  and  better  sort,  (for  among  such  they  never 
ventured  to  appear),  but  whenever  they  observed  a  set  of 
raw  young  fellows,  slaves  or  fools,  there  they  took  care  to 
intrude  themselves,  and  to  display  their  arts." — Free 
Inquiry^  p.  144. 

The  reader  has  only  to  consult  the  1st  and  2d  chapters 
of  the  1st  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  and  he  will  see  that 
this  principle  of  playing  off  upon  the  credulity  of  the 
weakest  and  most  ignorant  of  mankind,  is  expressly 
avowed  by  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles — "  Christ  cru- 
cijied,'''' to  tlie  Jews,  "a  stumbling  block,''''  as  contrary  to  all 
evidence  of  fact;  '■'-and  to  the  Greeks,  foolishness,^^  as  revolt- 
ing to  reason.  The  principal  result,  however,  of  this  re- 
semblance is,  the  evidence  it  affords  that  the  terms  or 
epithets  of  "  Our  Saviour" — the  Saviour  being  God,  were 
the  usual  designations  of  the  god  iEsculapius  ;f .  and 
that  miracles  of  healing,  and  resurrection  from  the  dead, 

*  See  the  Chapter  on  Justin  Martyr,  in  this  Diegesis. 

t  Both  Bacchus,  and  Jupiter  also,  was  distinguished  by  the  epithet  Our  Sav- 
iour. Sir  John  Marsham  had  a  coin  of  the  Thasions  on  which  was  the  inscrip- 
tion Hqaxltng  StaTijnos,  of  Hercules  THE  Saviour. — Bryant's  Annot.  vol. 
2,  p.  406.  195.  The  name  of  Christ,  as  we  have  seen  {Definitions,  p.  7,)  was 
ridiculously  common,  and  extended  even  to  every  individual  of  the  Jewish  race: — 

•*  Touch  not  my  Christs,  and  do  my  fortune-tellers  no  harrn." — Psalm  cv.  14. 


154  HERCULES. 

were  the  evidence  of  his  divinity,  for  ages  before  similar 
pretences  were  advanced  for  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  "  Strabo 
informs  us,  that  the  temples  of  ^sculapius  were  constant- 
ly filled  with  the  sick,  imploring  the  help  of  God  ;  and 
that  they  had  tables  hanging  around  them,  in  which  all 
the  miraculous  cures  were  described.  There  is  a  remark- 
able fragment  of  one  of  these  tables  still  extant,  and 
exhibited  by  Gruter  in  his  collection,  as  it  was  found  in 
the  ruins  of  ^Esculapius's  temple,  in  the  island  of  the 
Tyber  in  Rome;  which  gives  an  account  of  two  blind  men 
restored  to  sight  by  ^Esculapius,  in  the  open  view,  and 
with  the  loud  acclamations  of  the  people  acknowledging 
the  manifest  power  of  the  god." — Middletori's  Free  Inquiry^ 
p.  78.  Could  such  a  document  be  produced  to  authen- 
ticate any  one  of  the  miracles  ascribed  to  Jesus,  what 
would  become  of  the  cause  of  infidelity.^ 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

HERCULES JESUS    CHRIST. 

Or  Alcides,  was  the  son  of  God  by  Alcmena,  wife  of  Am- 
phytrion,  king  of  Thebes,  and  is  said  to  have  been  born 
in  that  city,  1280  years  before  the  Christian  era.  Her- 
cules was  pointed  out  by  the  ancients  as  their  great  ex- 
emplar of  virtue.  It  was  affirmed  by  some,  that  he 
voluntarily  engaged  in  his  great  labours.  The  whole  of 
his  life  appears  to  have  been  devoted  to  the  good  of  man- 
kind. "  The  writers  who  treat  of  his  adventures,  and  of 
the  antiquities  relating  to  them,"  says  Mr.  Spence,  "have 
generally  fallen  into  a  great  deal  of  confusion,  so  far,  that 
I  scarcely  know  any  one  of  them  that  has  perfectly  well 
settled  which  were  his  twelve  labours.  To  avoid  falling 
into  the  same  confusion,  one  may  divide  all  his  adventures 
into  three  classes.  In  the  first  class,  I  should  place  such 
as  are  previous  to  his  twelve  celebrated  labours; 

"  In  the  second,  those  twelve  labours  themselves,  which 
he  was  obliged  to  do  by  the  fatality  of  his  birth; 

"And  in  the  third,  any  supernumerary  exploits. 

"  His  first  exploit  was  that  of  strangling  two  serpents 
sent  to  destroy  him  in  his  cradle.  This  he  seems  to  have 
performed,  according  to  some  accounts  of  it,  when  he  was 
not  above  half  an  hour  old.  But  what  is  still  more  extra- 
ordinary is,  that  there  are  exploits  supposed  to  have  been 
performed  by  Hercules,  even  before  Alcmena  brought  him 
into  the  world." 


HERCULES.  155 

Thus  far  Spence,  in  his  Polymetis,  dial.  9,  p.  116. 
Adding-  in  a  note,  "  This,  perhaps,  is  one  of  the  most 
mysterious  points  in  all  the  mythology  of  the  ancients. 
Though  Hercules  was  born  not  long  before  the  Trojan 
war,  they  make  him  assist  the  gods  in  conquering  the 
rebel  giants  [VirgiVs  JEneid,  8,  line  298);  and  some  of 
them  talk  of  an  oracle  or  tradition  in  heaven,  that  the 
gods  could  never  conquer  them,  without  the  assistance  of 
a  man." 

Upon  which,  the  orthodox  Parkhurst,  in  his  Hebrew 
Lexicon,*  asks,  with  indignation,  "  Can  any  man  seriously 
believe,  that  so  excellent  a  scholar  as  Mr.  Spence  was, 
could  not  easily  have  accounted  for  what  he  represents  as 
being  so  very  mysterious  ?  Will  not  1  Pet.  i.  20,f  compared 
with  Hag.  ii.  7,;  clear  the  whole  difficulty,  only  recollect- 
ing that  Hercules  might  be  the  name  of  several  mere  men^ 
as  well  as  the  title  of  the  future  ScH-iour  9  And  did  not  the 
truth  here  glare  so  strongly  on  our  author's  eyes,  that  he 
was  afraid  to  trust  his  reader  with  it  in  the  text,  and  so 
put  it  into  a  note  for  fear  it  should  spoil  his  jests." 

"  It  is  well  known,"  continues  Parkhurst,  "  that  by 
Hercules,  in  the  physical  mythology  of  the  heathens,  was 
meant  the  Sun,  or  solar  light,  and  his  twelve  famous  labours 
have  been  referred  to  the  sun's  passing  through  the  twelve 
zodiacal  signs;  and  this,  perhaps,  not  without  some  founda- 
tion. But  the  labours  of  Hercules  seem  to  have  had  a 
still  higher  view,  and  to  have  been  originally  designed  as 
emblematic  memorials  of  what  the  real  Son  of  God  and 
Saviour  of  the  loorld  was  to  do  and  suffer  for  our  sakes — 
A^ooim-  ,9i?.y.Ty;Qta  nana  youiLun- — "  Bringing  all  Unitives  of  ow  dis- 
eases,''"' as  the  Orphic  Hymn  speaks  of  Hercules. "§ 

Thus  we  see  that  Christian  divines,  according  to  their 
cue  or  drift,  either  endeavour  to  conceal  or  else  hoast  of  the 
resemblance  between  the  Christian  and  Pagan  mythology. 
At  one  time,  or  with  one  set  of  Christian-evidence  writers, 
the  very  idea  of  naming  Christ  and  Hercules  together  is 
held  as  the  most  frightful  impiety  ;  heaven  and  hell  are 

*  P.  520. 

t  Who  verily  was  foreordained  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  but 
was  manifest  in  these  last  times  for  you. 

t  And  the  Desire  of  all  nations  shall  come. 

§  See  Parkhurst's  Hebrew  Lexicon,  under  the  word  □'j^t^  Protectors,  from 
the  root  1>',  Strength,  or  Vigour,  p.  520.  But  what  is  this  whole  strain  of  ar- 
gument, but  the  open  and  avowed  Eclectic  Philosophy,  and  a  virtual  admission 
that  Christianity  and  Paganism  are  perfectly  synonymous  ? 


156  HERCULES. 

not  further  asunder:  with  another  set,  equally  orthodox, 
but  driving  at  a  different  tact  of  argument,  it  is  Satan 
himself  who  hath  blimded  our  eyes,  to  prevent  the  light  of 
truth  shining  upon  us,  if  we  cannot  see  that  Hercules  and 
Jesus  Christ  are  one  and  the  same  identical  personage: 
that  the  labours  of  the  one  were  the  miracles  of  the  other; 
and  that  the  most  mysterious  and  abstruse  doctrines  of 
the  New  Testament  were  but  the  realization  of  the  emblem- 
atical types  of  the  ancient  Paganism.  Son  of  God,  and 
Saviour  of  the  world,  were  forms  of  expression  with 
which  the  ear  of  heathenism  was  familiar,  for  ages  before 
it  was  pretended  that  the  son  of  Jehovah  and  Mary  had  a 
better  claim  to  be  addressed  by  those  titles,  than  the  son 
of  Jupiter  and  Alcmene. 

There  was,  however,  a  consistency  in  the  conduct  of  the 
worshippers  of  the  earlier  claimant,  and  a  conformity  of 
their  practice  to  their  profession,  which  we  shall  look  for 
in  vain  among  the  adorers  of  the  later  aspirant.  Hercules 
was  expressly  and  professedly  worshipped  by  the  ancient 
Latins,  under  the  name  of  Divus  Fidius;  that  is,  the 
guarantee  or  protector  of  faith  promised  or  sworn.  They 
had  a  custom  of  calling  this  deity  to  witness,  by  a  sort  of 
oath  conceived  in  these  terms — '■'■Me  Dius  Fidius!''''  that  is, 
So  help  me  the  god  Fidius!  or  Hercules.  But  with  all  due 
respect  to  the  high  authority  I  quote,  rather  than  incur 
the  censure  of  the  divines  of  the  Hutchinsonian  school,  of 
resisting  the  light  that  glares  upon  me,  I  should  take  the 
original  form  of  the  ancient  oath  to  have  been  "  ,Me  Deus 
Filius!^^  the  filling  up  of  which  formulary,  with  the  words 
.ltd  adjuvet^  make  the  sense  complete.  So  help  me  God  the 
Son!^^  The  form  of  oath  used  in  our  universities  at  this 
day  is,  "  lla  me  Deus  adjuvct  et  sancta  ejus  evangeliaV — 
So  help  me  God  mid  his  holy  Gospels!  The  turning  the  word 
filius  into  Fidius,  and  inventing  a  god,  or  an  epitheton  of 
that  name,  seems  like  a  struggle  to  evade  the  evident  sense, 
especially  since  we  know  that,  in  the  hurried  and  gabbling 
way  in  which  the  ancient  oath  was  administered,  the 
whole  sentence  was  pronounced  but  as  two  words,  Medius 
Fidius;  and  certainly  it  would  be  ridiculous  to  make  a 
God,  or  the  epithet  of  a  God,  of  the  word  Medius:  and 
why  might  not  Herc\iles  be  honoured  with  the  title  of 
God  the  son,  to  distinguish  him  from  Jupiter,  or  God  the 
Father,  as  by  his  human  nature  standing  in  a  nearer 
relation  to  mankind  than  the  paternal  deity,  and  the  fitter 
to  be  appealed  to  as  a  mediator  in  human  transactions; 


HERCULES.  157 

especially  seeing  that  he  was  known  and  recognized  under 
the  exactly  similar  designation  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  the 
Saviour  of  the  world? 

It  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  curious  extravagancies  of 
all  that  is  extravagant  in  Christian  faith  and  practice,  that 
the  custom  of  administering  oaths  should  be  retained  in 
Christian  courts  of  judicature,  in  spite  of  the  express  and 
reiterated  prohibitions  of  swearing  contained  by  luckless 
oversight  in  the  very  book  on  which  the  oath  is  taken. 
Our  Judge  Blackstone,  well  aware  how  ill  the  Christian 
text  would  serve  his  purpose,  passes  over  the  words  of 
Jesus  Christ,  "  I  say  unto  you,  swear  not  at  all,''''  (Matt.  v. 
34);  and  those  of  his  holy  Apostle  St.  James,  "  But  above 
all  thi7igs,  my  brethren,  swear  not^^^  (James  v.  12);  and  quotes 
the  text  of  the  Pagan,  Cicero: — 

"  Who  denies  tliat  these  opinions  are  useful,  when  he 
observes  how  many  things  are  certified  upon  oath  ;  of 
what  safety  are  the  religious  obligations  of  covenants, 
how  many  persons  are  restrained  from  crime  by  the  fear 
of  divine  punishment,  and  how  holy  is  the  society  of  citi- 
zenship, from  the  belief  of  the  presence  of  the  immortal 
gods,  as  well  with  the  judges  as  with  the  witnesses?"* 

"  It  has  indeed  been  remarked  by  the  most  eminent 
writers  of  the  Roman  history,  that  the  superstition  of  that 
people  had  a  great  influence  in  keeping  them  in  subordi- 
nation and  allegiance.  It  is  more  particularly  observed, 
that  in  no  other  nation  was  the  solemn  obligation  of  an 
oath  treated  with  such  respect,  and  fulfilled  with  such  a 
rehgious  circumspection,  and  such  an  inviolable  fidelity." 
Such  is  the  substance  of  a  note  of  a  Christian  translator 
of  Mosheira,  in  opposition  to  a  remark  of  his  text,  that  the 
Roman  superstition  was  defective  in  this  point. — (Cent.  4, 
part  1.) 

A  note  to  similar  effect  occurs  in  the  Christian  Evan- 
son's  work  on  the  Dissonance  of  the  four  Gospels,  p.  81. 
"  I  was  many  years  ago  assured  by  an  intimate  friend, 
and  an  intelligent  worthy  man,  who  had  traded  largely 
both  in  the  northern  parts  of  Africa  and  in  many  different 
countries  of  Europe,  that  he  was  never  once  deceived  in 
confiding  in  the  honour  and  integrity  of  a  Mahomedan; 
but  that  through  the  perfidy  and  dishonesty  of  some  of 

*  Utiles  esse  opiniones  has,  quis  negat,  cum  intelligat  quam  multa  fiimentur 
jurejorando  ;  quantae  salutis  sint  foederum  religiones,  quam  multos  divini  supplicii 
metus  ascelere  revocarit,  quamque  sancta  sit  societas  civium  inter  ipsos,  Diis  im- 
mortalibus  interpositis  turn  judicibus  turn  testibus. — De  Legibus,  lib.  2,  7. 

15 


ISft  ADONIS. 

those  he  dealt  with,  he  had  been  defrauded  and  injured  in 
every  nation  of  professed  Christians."* 

The  gaoler  of  the  prison  in  which  I  am  at  the  time  of 
writing  this,  in  the  seventh  month  of  an  unjust  captivity- 
incurred  by  the  conscientious  and  honourable  maintenance 
of  my  sincere  convictions,  informs  me,  that  during  his  own 
long  residence  in  Malta,  and  constant  course  of  commercial 
transactions  with  the  professors  of  the  Mohamedan  creed, 
he  never  heard  of  an  unpaid  debt,  or  a  violated  obligation; 
and  that  it  is  an  usual  mode  of  traffic  in  the  market-towns 
throughout  Turkey,  for  the  farmers  and  huxters  to  leave 
their  fowls,  eggs  and  butter,  &c.  in  baskets,  with  the  prices 
affixed,  and  to  return  in  the  evening  in  perfect  security  of 
finding  the  article  as  they  left  it,  or  the  exact  price  de- 
posited in  the  place  of  just  so  much  of  it  as  had  found  a 
purchaser. 

"  Were  a  wise  man,"  says  Bishop  Kidder,  "  to  choose 
his  religion  by  the  lives  of  those  who  profess  it,  perhaps 
Christianity  would  be  the  last  religion  he  would  choose." 
Christianity,  then,  has  no  pretence  to  evidence  on  the 
Bcore  of  any  moral  etiects  it  has  produced  in  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

ADONIS JESUS  CHRIST. 

The  Jews  had  a  superstition  of  not  uttering  the  incom- 
municable name  of  God,  nn^ — that  is,  Yahou,  or  Jackhou; 
or,  as  it  frequently  occurs,  in  one  syllable,  n" — Jao^  or 
Jack;\  which,  with  more  reverence  than  reason,  is  pro- 
nounced Jah!  as  the  tetragrammaton,  or  word  of  four 
letters,  which  at  this  day  adorns  our  Christian  temples  is 
called  Jehovah. 

From  this  divine  name  n",  says  Parkhurst,  the  ancient 
Greeks  had  their  i^i  in  their  invocations  of  the  gods,  more 

*  There  are  no  Quakers  among  them  ;  and  there  can  be  no  villany  where 
Quakers  are  not. 

t  The  nearest  approach  to  the  exact  pronunciation  of  this  sacred  word  will 
be  produced  by  suspending  the  action  of  all  tlie  organs  of  articulation,  and  making 
only  that  convulsive  heave  of  the  larynx,  by  which  the  bronchal  vessels  discharge 
the  accumulated  phlegm;  it  is  enunciated  with  the  most  eloquent  propriety  in  the 
act  of  vomiting,  and  perhaps  on  this  account  has  been  called  the  unutterable 
name. — Consult  Rabbi  Ben  Herschel,  and  his  beard  !  The  God  Jehovah, 
the  most  hideous  of  the  whole  mythology,  was  well  known  to  the  Gentilea ; 
he  was  the  Jonn  of  the  ancient  Tuscans,  and  Latinized  into  the  Jamub  of  the 
Romans, 


ADONIS.  159 

particularly  of  the  god  Apollo,  i.  e.  The  Light.  And  hence 
these  two  letters,  forming  the  name  Ja/i,  written  after  the 
Oriental  manner,  from  right  to  left,  were  inscribed  over 
the  great  door  of  the  temple  of  Apollo  at  Delphi. 

n-  is  several  times  joined  with  the  name  mn',  which 
seems  to  indicate  that  they  are  distinct  names  for  the 
same  deity,  and  not  the  one  the  mere  abbreviation  of 
the  other.  The  rays  of  light  or  glory  within  a  circle  or 
ring  of  which  the  tetragrammaton,  or  four-lettered  word, 
is  exhibited  in  our  Christian  temples,  are  a  demonstration 
that  the  same  deity  is  intended  by  the  Christian  Jehovah 
as  by  the  Pagan  Jah  (that  is,  Apollo),  whose  name  of 
two  letters  was  in  like  manner  encircled  with  rays  of 
glory.       ^ 

The  Pagans,  indeed,  seem  more  rigidly  to  have  adhered 
to  the  text  or  injunctions  of  those  Syrio-Phcenician  odes 
which  have  been  consecrated  by  Christian  piety,  under  the 
name  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  and  which  formed  a  material 
part  of  their  idolatrous  liturgies,  than  their  Christian  pla- 
giarists who  have  retained  the  use  of  them  in  a  never- 
interrupted  succession  from  their  times. 

We  read  in  the  original,  the  hundred  times  re- 
peated commands,  n'l  T'7'7n — Ellell-lu-jah  !  praise  ye  Jack  ! 
n^  nx  TD13  njn — Behold!  bless  ye  Jack! 

■^^K  o  VJ3^  )]bi;)  miy  n'3  nmjra  ddi'?  i'?d  idk;  nai  wrh^b  n'ty 

Sing  ye  to  the  gods !  Chant  ye  his  name !  Exalt  him  who  rideth 
in  the  heavens,  by  his  name  Jack,  and  leap  for  joy  before  his 
face !  For  the  Lord  hath  a  long  nose,  and  his  mercy  endureth  for 
ever ! 

It  is  admitted,  however,  on  all  hands,  that  the  proper 
pronunciation  of  the  tetragrammaton  which  we  call  Je- 
hovah, and  its  synonyme  Jah,  is  entirely  lost.  Nor  can  it 
be  denied,  that  the  Hebrew  points  ordinarily  annexed  to 
the  consonants  of  those  words,  are  not  the  natural  points 
belonging  thereto,  nor  indicative  of  pronunciation;  but  are 
the  vowel  points  belonging  to  the  words  Adonai  and  Elo- 
him, — to  warn  the  reader,  that  instead  of  the  word  Je- 
hovah, which  the  Jews  were  forbidden  to  pronounce,  and 
the  pronunciation  of  which  had  been  long  unknown  to 
them,  they  are  always  to  read  Adonai,  or  Adonis.* 

*  See  the  Oxford  Encyclopaedia,  under  the  head  Adonists;  and  my  own  fur- 
ther investigations  of  this  curious  subject,  in  my  Syntagma  of  the  Evidences  of 
the  Christian  Religion,  pubUshed  during  the  earlier  months  of  my  still  continuing 


160  ADONIS. 

Hence  we  find,  that  frequently  where  the  common 
printed  copies  read  'ijx,  many  of  Dr.  Kennicott's  codices 
have  nin-.  And  hence,  says  Dr.  Parkhurst,  whose  ortho- 
doxy of  Christian  faith  admits  not  a  suspicion — hence  the 
idol  Monis  had  his  name.* 

The  reader  will,  I  hope,  do  himself  the  justice  to  observe, 
that  throughout  this  Diegesis,  no  merely  fanciful  or  con- 
jectural interpretations  are  admitted,  and  no  new  lights 
struck  out  from  ingenious  etymologies:  he  is  here  pre- 
sented with  the  calm  dispassionate  evidence  of  fact,  and 
when  those  facts  are  most  pregnant  of  conclusions  adverse 
to  Christianity,  they  are  invariably  adduced  in  the  words 
and  on  the  authority  of  Christians  themselves,  whose  dis- 
interestedness, at  least,  in  yielding  admissions  of  this 
character,  is  no  more  to  be  questioned,  than  their' learning 
and  piety  to  be  surpassed. 

The  great  source  of  difficulty  and  mistake  in  tracing  the 
identity  of  the  parent  figment  through  the  multifarious 
forms  of  the  ancient  idolatry,  seems  to  arise  from  the 
change  of  epithets  and  names,  while  yet  it  is  but  one  and 
the  same  deity  and  demi-god  who  is  meant  under  a  hun- 
dred designations.  Thus,  the  names  under  which  the 
Sun  has  been  the  real  and  only  intended  object  of  divine 
worship,  have  been  as  various  and  as  many  as  the  nations 
of  the  earth  on  which  his  light  has  shone.  And  as  va- 
rious are  the  allegories  and  fictions  of  his  passing  through 
the  zodiacal  sign  of  the  Virgin,  which,  of  course,  would 
remain  a  virgin  still ;  his  descending  into  the  lower  parts 
of  the  earth;  his  rising  again  from  the  dead;  his  ascend- 
ing into  heaven,  his  opening  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to 
all  believers;  his  casting  his  bright  beams  of  light  through 
twelve  months,  or  Apostles,  one  of  whom  (February — 
Judas)  lost  a  day,  and  hy  transgression  (or  skipping  over) 
"/eZ/,  that  he  might  go  to  his  own  place^^^  (Acts  i.  25);  '■'■  his 
preaching  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord,^^  (Luke  iv.  9).  By 
all  which  metaphorical  personifications,  were  typified  the 
natural  history  or  circumstances  observable  in  the  Sun's 
progress  through  the  twelve  months  which  constitute  the 
natural  year. 

The  Jews  in  vain  endeavour  to  disguise  the  fact,  that 
they  also  were  Sun  worshippers.  We  find,  from  their  own 
sacred  books,  that  their  Solomon,  after  having  built   a 

unjust  imprisonment,  for  the  conscientious  exposure  of  the  errors  and  ignorance  on 
which  that  religion  is  founded,  p.  96. 

*  Parkhurst's  Hebrew  Lexicon,  under  the  head  31  3. 


ADONIS.  161 

temple  to  Jehovah,  "  did  build  also  an  high  place  for  i:/-:^ 
Chemosh  (that  is,  the  Sun),  the  abomination  of  JMoab,  in  the 
hill  that  is  before  Jerusalem,^''  (1  Kings,  xi.  1) ;  and  so  kite 
as  to  the  reig-n  of  Josiah,  successive  kings  of  Judah  ^-had 
dedicated  horses  to  the  Sun  ;  and  the  chariots  of  the  Sun  tvere 
at  the  entering  in  of  the  house  of  the  Lord.'''' — 2  Kings,  xxii.  11. 

The  prophet  Malachi  expressly  speaks  of  Christ.,  under 
the  same  unaltered  name  of  Chemosh,  the  abomination 
of  the  Moabites — r\-^-\-^  jyoti- — Chapter  iii,  verse  4,  or 
iv.  2.  Which  being,  by  our  evangelical  reformers,  very 
conveniently  translated  the  Sun  of  Righteousness .,'\  of  course 
could  refer  to  nothing  else  than  Jesus  Christ,  and  so 
conceals  the  idolatry,  while  it  conveys  the  piety. 

The  same  deity,  however,  under  his  name  Adonis, 
without  any  change  but  that  of  the  various  pronouns, 
suffices  to  indicate  my  Adon,  our  Adon,  &c.  is  the  undis- 
guised idol  who  is  addressed  innumerable  times  through- 
out the  book  of  Psalms,  under  that  name,  and  to  whose 
honour,  in  common  with  that  of  Jehovah,  they  were  com- 
posed and  dedicated.  The  110th  Psalm,  of  which  the 
first  verse  rendered  into  English,  is,  "  The  Lord  said  unto 
my  Lord.,  Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand.,  until  I  make  thine  ene- 
mies thy  footstool,^''*  should  have  been  rendered,  "  Yahou 
said  unto  Adonis.''^  The  two  idols  were  worshipped  in  the 
same  house  of  the  Lord,  which  was  at  Jerusalem  :  Yahou, 
or  Jack,  sat  on  the  lid  of  a  box,  ridiculously  called  the 
ilasterion,  or  mercy-seat;  while  Adonis  seems  to  have  occu- 
pied the  vestibule,  or  entering-in  of  the  house  of  the  Lord. 
The  rest  of'the  Psalm  is  a  dialogue,  in  which  Jao,  or  Jack, 
proposes  terms  of  alliance  between  himself  and  Adonis, 
^nd  engages  to  join  him  in  the  slaughter  of  their  enemies. 
The  preference  of  the  Jews  for  Adonis,  who  was  distin- 
guished for  his  personal  beauty,  above,  the  cloven  footed 
and  long-nosed  Jehovah  |  has  induced  them  to  this  day, 
not  only  to  read  the  name  Adon,  wherever  it  occurs,  but 
entirely  to  banish  the  recollection  of  Jao  altogether. 
They  substitute  the  name  Adon  in  every  instance  where 
our  translators  have  put  Jehovah,  or  the  Lord  ;  so  that  in 
*  the  reading  of  those  to  whom  these  lively  oracles  were 
:  ybl'^b  Din  73N  n'tyx  -\v  'rn^b  nty  ':inb  nin^  dnj  * 

t  The  Hebrew  has  no  adjectives  :  Stm  of  Righteousness  is  their  idiom  for  the 
Righteous  Sun. 

t  See  the  plate  of  him  in  Parkhurst,  and  his  convincing  arguments  in  proof 
that  the  beast  with  four  faces  and  four  wings,  standing  like  a  cock  upon  a  hen- 
roost, on  one  leg,  "  must  be  referred  to  Jehovah  only,"  under  the  head  -im 
340—4. 

15* 


162  ADONIS. 

committed,  it  is  not  Jehovah,  bvit  the  Phoenician  deity 
Adonis,  who  is  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Jehovah  then,  had  more  than  cause  enough  for  jealousy 
against  the  encroachments  of  Adonis,  and  in  one  most 
striking  instance,  the  worship  of  this  idol,  under  his  name 
Tammuz,  is  denounced  as  an  atrocious  abomination. 
Then  he  brought  me  to  the  door  of  the  gate  of  the  Lord^s  house, 
which  was  towards  the  north,  and  behold  there  sat  women  weeping 
for  Tammuz. — (Ezekiel  viii.  14.) 

Here  Jerome  interprets  non  Tammuz,  by  Adonis,  who  he 
observes,  is  in  Hebrew  and  Syriac,  called  Adonis. 

"  I  find  myself  obliged,  (says  the  pious  author  of  the 
Greek  and  Hebrew  Lexicons,)  to  refer  Tammuz,  as  well 
as  the  Greek .  and  Roman  Hercules,  to  that  class  of  idols, 
which  was  originally  designed  to  represent  the  promised 
Saviour,  the  Desire  of  all  nations.  His  other  name,  Ado- 
nis, is  almost  the  very  Hebrew  ':nx  or  our  Lord,  a  well- 
known  title  of  Christ." 

Such  are  the  words  of  the  ingenuous,  most  learned,  and 
orthodox  Parkhurst,  who  proceeds  to  exhibit  this  resem- 
blance of  Adonis  and  Christ,  by  subjoining,  with  acknow- 
ledgements to  his  authorities  Spearman  and  Godivyn,  a 
passage  from  Julius  Firmicius,  which  in  my  earlier  writings 
I  was  content  to  quote,  as  he  had  done,  at  second-hand. 
The  retirement  and  leisure  however  which  my  Christian 
persecutors  have  forced  upon  me,  and  the  attentions  of 
my  unbelieving  friends,  have  enabled  me  to  study  the  very 
rare  and  curious  original  itself.  It  is  an  oration  or  address 
of  Julius  Firmicius  delivered  to  the  EmperorS  Constans 
and  Constantius ;  the  object  of  which  was  to  induce  those 
pious  princes  to  seize  the  property  of  their  Pagan  subjects, 
and  apply  it  to  Christian  uses — than  which,  cf  course,  no- 
thing could  have  been  more  orthodox.  After  forty- 
five  pages  of  abuse  heaped  on  the  ancient  Pagans  for 
their  egregious  forms  of  idolatry,  in  which  by  a  most 
curious  mystical  interpretation  of  their  ceremonies,  he 
discovers  Christ  to  have  been  represented  by  them  all, — • 
he  adds,  "  *  Let  us  propose  another  symbol,  that  by  an 
effort  of  cogitation,  their  wickedness  may  be  revealed,  of 
which  we  must  relate  the  whole  process  in  order  that  it 
may  be  manifest  to  all,  that  the  law  of  the  divine  appoint- 

*  Aliud  etiam  symbolum  proponamus,  ut  conamine  cogitationis,  scelera 
revelentur ;  cujas  tolas  ordo  dicendus  est,  ut  apud  omnes  constat  divin®  dia- 
positionis  legem,  perversa  Diaboli  iinitatione  corruptain.  Noclc  quadam  siinula- 
cruin   in  lectica   supinum  ponitur,   et   per   numeros  digestis   Hetibus    plaugitur. 


ADONIS.  163 

ment  hath  been  corrupted  by  the  devil's  perverse  imita- 
tion. On  a  certain  night  (while  the  ceremony  of  the 
Monia^  or  rehgious  rites  in  honour  of  Adonis  lasted)  an 
image  was  laid  out  upon  a  bed,  and  bewailed  in  doleful 
ditties.  After  they  had  satiated  themselves  with  fictitious 
lamentations,  light  was  brought  in  ;  then  the  mouths  of 
all  the  mourners  were  anointed  by  the  priest,  upon  which 
the  priest,  with  a  gentle  murmur,  whispered — 

Trust  ye,  saints,  your  God  restored. 
Trust  ye,  in  your  risen  Lord  ; 
For  the  pains  which  he  endured 
Our  salvation  have  procured. 

"  Upon  which  their  sorrow  was  turned  into  joy,  and  the 
image  was  taken,  as  it  were  out  of  its  sepulchre."  These 
latter  words,  though  their  sense  is  evidently  implied,  have 
no  direct  authority  in  the  original,  but  seem  to  be  a  scho- 
lium of  Mr.  Spearman.  Firmicius,  in  his  tide  of  eloquence, 
leaves  his  conclusion  elliptical  ;  and  breaks  away  into  in- 
dignant objurgation  of  the  priest  who  officiated  in  those 
heathen  mysteries,  which,  he  admitted,  resembled  the 
Christian  sacrament  in  honour  of  the  death  and  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ,  so  closely,  that  there  was  really  no 
difference  between  them,  except*  that  no  sufficient  proof 
had  been  given  to  the  world  of  the  resurrection  of  Adonis, 
and  no  divine  oracle  had  borne  witness  to  his  resurrec- 
tion, nor  had  he  shown  himself  alive  after  his  death  to 
those  who  were  concerned  to  have  assurance  of  the  fact, 
that  they  might  believe.  The  divine  oracle  (be  it  ob- 
served,) whicli  had  borne  witness  to  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  but  which  it  seems  had  vouchsafed  no  such 
honourable  testimony  to  the  resurrection  of  Adonis,  was 
none  other  than  the  answer  of  the  God  Apollo,  at  Delphos  ; 
which  this  author  derives  from  Porphyry's  books  on  the 
Philosophy  of  Oracles ;  and  which  Eusebius  has  conde- 
scended to  quote,  as  furnishing  one  of  the  most  convincing 

Deinde  cum  se  ficta  lamcntatione  satiaverint,  lumen  infertur.  Tunc  a  Sacerdote 
omnium  qui  flebant,  fauces  unguntur,  quibus  peruiictis,  sacerdos  lento  murmure 
susurrat : 

GccQQciTs  uvarai  ts  -9(8  aiao>auivii 

Eoxat  yaQ  ';i(Ji'  fz  Troo))'  aiuTtjota. 
Literally,  "  Trust  ye  communicants  ;  the  God  having  been  saved,  there  shall  be  to 
us   out  of  pains,  salvation."     Godwyn,  who  seems  not  to  have  discovered  the 
metre  of  the  original,  renders  it,  "  Trust  ye  in  God,  for  out  of  pains,  salva- 
tion is  come  unto  us. ' ' 

*  Dei  tui  mors  nota  est,  vita  non  comparet  ;  nee  de  resurrectione  ejus  divinimi 
aliquando  respondit  oraculum,  nee  homijiibus  se  post  mortem  ut  sibi  crederetur, 
ostendit,  nulla  hujus  operis  documenta  promLsit,  nee  se  hoc  facturum  esse  praece- 
dentibus  monstravit  exemplis. — De  Errore  prof.  Relig.  p.  45. 


164  ADONIS. 

proofs  that  could  be  adduced  from  the  admission  of  an  ad- 
versary of  the  resurrection  of  Christ.* 

"But  thou  at  least,"  says  Eusebius,  "listen  to  thine 
own  Gods,  to  thy  oracular  deities  themselves,  who  have 
borne  witness,  and  ascribed  to  our  Saviour,  not  impos- 
ture, but  piety  and  wisdom,  and  ascent  into  heaven." 
Quoted  in  the  author'' s  Syntagma,  p.  116.  This  wag  vastly 
obliging  and  liberal  of  the  God  Apollo  ;  only,  it  happens 
awkwardly  enough,  that  the  whole  work,  (consisting  of 
several  books)  ascribed  to  Porphyry,  in  which  this  and 
other  admissions  equally  honourable  to  the  evidences  of 
the  Christian  religion,  are  made,  was  not  written  by  Por- 
phyry, but  is  altogether  the  pious  forgery  of  Christian 
hands  ;  who  have  kindly  fathered  the  great  philosopher 
with  admissions,  which  as  he  would  certainly  never  have 
made  them  himself,  they  have  very  charitably  made  for 
him. 

But  not  alone  the  very  name  Adon,  or  Adonai,  nor  the 
particular  manner  in  which  that  God  was  worshipped,  oc- 
curring as  frequently  as  the  name  Jehovah,  and  by  the 
Jews  themselves  constantly  maintained  to  be  the  sense  of 
that  name,  and  proper  to  be  used  rather  than,  and  instead 
of  it ;  but  the  distinctive  attributes  of  Adonis,  the  pecu- 
liarly characteristical  epithets  and  designations  by  which 
that  idol  was  identified  from  all  others,  prove  beyond  the 
possibility  of  doubt,  that  the  Jews  were  worshippers  of 
the  self-same  Adonis,  adored  by  their  Phoenician  neigh- 
bours. Adonis  was  distinguished  for  his  personal  beauty. 
"VVe  find  entire  odes  or  psalms  in  praise  of  his  beauty,f 
and  his  characteristic  epithet  of  The  Beauty  of  Holi- 
ness used  interchangeably,  instead  of  his  name,  "^e 
appointed  singers  unto  the  Lord,  and  that  should  praise 
The  Beauty  of  Holiness." — 2  Chron.  xx.  21. 

"  The  Devil,"  says  Firmicius,  "has  his  Christs,"|  of 
which  he  affects  not  to  deny  that  this  Adonis  was  one. 
But  one  of  the  strongest  sensible  proofs  of  the  difference 
between  the  false  Christs  and  the  true  one,  which  this 

*  Firmicius,  quotes  this  Christian  forgery  under  the  title  ITcqi  tj;?  tvXoyiwv 
<pi}.ono(pHtc. — Eusebius,  avails  himself  of  it,  as  JTfQt  Xoyio)^'  (piyoooiptag. — 
Macknight  and  Doddridge  strove  mightily  to  enlist  it  into  the  service  of  the  Church 
Militant  ;   but  it  would  not  do. 

rhyb  o-nha.  p-in  id  ^7;;  ynmstyn  |n  pvin  din  'J3d  n^D^a  T 

Thou  art  handsome,  beyond  the  sons   of  Adam,  love  is  diffused  in  thy  lips,  for 
the  sake  of  which,  God  is  enamoured  of  thee  forever. — Psalm  15. 
t  Habet  ergo  Diabolu^s  Christos  suos,  p.  40". 


ADONIS.  165 

author  could  adduce,  was,  that  the  ointment  with  which 
the  Pagan  priests  anointed  the  lips  of  the  mystics,  or 
initiated  in  the  Adonia^  or  sacrament  of  our  Lord  Adonis, 
was  wholly  different  from  the  unguentum  immortaU,  which 
God  the  Father  gave  to  his  only  Son,*  and  which  thfe 
Son  bestows  on  all  those  who  believe  in  the  divine  majes- 
ty of  his  name  :  for  Christ's  ointment,  he  would  have  us  to 
know,  is  "of  an  immortal  composition,  and  mixed  up  with 
the  spiritual  scents  of  paints,  of  myrrh,  aloes,  and  cassia, 
out  of  ivory  palaces ;"  whereas  the  Pag-an  ointment  was, 
I  dare  say,  little  better  than  cart-grease. — Nobody  need 
know  any  more  about  Vir.  Clarus  Julius  Firmicius  Ma- 
ternus. 

The  Adonia  were  solemn  feasts  in  honour  of  Venus, 
and  in  memory  of  her  beloved  son,  Adonis.  Venus,  as 
sprung  from  the  sea,  Mai-e,  could  not  be  more  honourably 
distinguished  than  by  her  epithet  Maria ;  Adonai  is  lit- 
erally Our  Lord  :  so  that  these  solemn  feasts,  without  any 
change  or  substitution  of  names,  were  unquestionably 
celebrated  to  the  honour  of  Mary  and  her  son.  Our 
Lord  ;  to  whomsoever  else  those  names  may  have  in  later 
ages  been  applied.  They  were  observed  by  the  Greeks, 
Phoenicians,  Lycians,  Syrians,  Egyptians,  and  indeed  by 
almost  all  the  nations  of  the  then  known  world.  It  is 
universally  agreed,  that  it  is  to  these  ceremonies  that 
the  Jewish  God  refers  in  the  8th  chapter  of  Ezekiel, 
where  they  are  denounced  as  an  abomination  ;  we  find 
by  inference,  an  honourable  apology  for  the  Jewish 
nation,  who,  as  a  people,  have  through  so  many  ages, 
refused  to  embrace  a  religion,  which  in  so  many  par- 
ticulars, and  even  in  the  continuance  of  the  same  names, 
has  lost  all  possibility  of  being  distinguished  in  their 
apprehension  from  '■'■the  abomination  of  the  Sidonians.''^  The 
festival  of  the  Adonia  was  still  observed  at  Alexandria^  the 
cradle  of  the  Christian  religion,  in  the  time  of  St.  Cyril  ; 
and  at  that  Antioch,  where  the  disciples  were  first  called 
Christians,  (Acts  xi.  26,)  even  as  late  as  the  time  of 
the  emperor  Julian,  commonly  called  the  Apostate; 
"  whose  arrival  there  during  the  solemnity  was  taken  for 
an  ill  omen. " — BelVs  Pantheon.  This  is  surely  a  curious 
admission  of  our  Christian  mythologists.  Let  the  reader 
ask  himself,  and   answer  as  he  may  the  questions  emer- 

*  Aliud  est  unguentum  quod  Deus  pater  unico  tradidit  Clio,  &c.  p.  46. — See 
in.  its  place,  under  the  name  Christ,  what  serious  though  slippery,  arguments  the 
Fathers  build  on  ointment  or  pomatum. 


166  ADONIS. 

gent  from  this  state  of  the  Chistian  evidences — 1 .  What 
argument  can  be  drawn  from  the  wonderful  propagation 
of  the  Gospel,  when  in  the  city  where  it  was  at  first  most 
successfully  preached,  and  where  the  disciples  were  first 
called  Christians,  it  had  not,  even  in  the  fourth  century, 
abolished  the  Pagan  and  idolatrous  festival  of  the 
Adonia  ?— 2.  And  wherefore  should  the  arrival  of  the 
emperor  Julian  (a  known  apostate  from  the  Christian 
religion,  and  a  zealous  patron  of  Paganism),  during  the 
celebration  of  the  Adonia,  have  been  considered  as  an  ill 
omen,  but  that  the  Adonia  had  come  to  be  considered  as 
entirely  a  Christian  festival  9 — 3.  And  at  what  time,  or 
whether  ever,  the  festival  of  the  Adonia  was  distinctly 
abolished,  and  that  of  the  Christian  Easter  established 
upon  its  overthrow  ? 

For  the  solution  of  these  most  important  inquiries,  we 
hold  up  the  light  of  the  admissions  of  ecclesiastical  his- 
torians. It  must  ever  be  borne  in  mind,  that  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  centuries  indus- 
triously laboured  to  give  their  religion  the  nearest  possible 
resemblance  to  the  ancient  Paganism ;  and  confessedly 
adopted  the  liturgies,  rites,  ceremonies,  and  terms  of  hea- 
thenism ;  making  it  their  boast  that  the  Pagan  religion, 
properly  explained^  really  was  nothing  else  than  Christianity; 
that  the  best  and  wisest  of  its  professors  in  all  ages  had 
been  Christians  all  along ;  that  Christianity  was  but  a  name 
more  recently  acquired  to  a  religion  which  had  previously 
existed,  and  had  been  known  to  the  Greek  philosophers, 
to  Plato,  Socrates,  and  Heraclitus  ;  and  that  "  if  the 
writings  of  Cicero  had  been  read  as  they  ought  to  have 
been,  there  would  have  been  no  occasion  for  the  Christian 
Scriptures."  Nor  did  some  of  them,  who  maintained  that 
Jesus  Christ  had  a  real  existence,  hesitate  to  ascribe  to 
him  a  work  in  which  "  he  himself  expressly  declared  that 
he  was  in  no  way  opposed  to  the  worship  of  the  gods  and 
goddesses  ;*  while  our  most  orthodox  Christian  divines, 
the  best  learned  in  ecclesiastical  antiquity,  and  most 
entirely  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion, 
unable  to  resist  or  to  conflict  with  the  constraining  demon- 
stration of  the  data  that  prove  the  absolute  sameness  and 
identity  of  Paganism  and  Christianity  ;  and  unable  to 
point  out  so  much  as  one  single  idea  or  notion,  of  which 
they  could  show  that  it  was  peculiar  to   Christianity,  or 

*See  the  chapter  of  admissions  in  this  Diegesis  ;  and  Jones  on  the  Canon, 
vol.  1.  p.  12. 


MYSTICAL    SACRIFICE    OP    THE    PHOENICIANS.  167 

that  Christianity  had  it,  and  Paganism  had  it  not ;  have 
invented  the  apology  of  an  hypothesis  ;  that  the  Pagan 
religion,  like  the  Jewish  dispensation,  was  typical ;  and  that 
Hercules,  Adonis,  &c.  were  all  of  them  types  and  forerun- 
ners of  the  true  and  real  Hercules,  Adonis,  &c.  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  Nothing  is  more  easily  con- 
ceivable, than  that  the  priests  and  devotees  of  any  one 
of  the  innumerable  forms  of  absurdity  which  superstition 
might  from  time  to  time  assume,  should  decry  all  others, 
and  pretend  that  their's  alone  was  divine  :  nothing  is  so 
hard  to  be  conceived,  as  that  a  God  of  infinite  wisdom  and 
truth  should  be  the  author  of  a  religion  so  little  superior, 
and  so  closely  resembling  the  devices  of  juggling  priests 
and  self-interested  impostors,  that  it  should  not  be  in  the 
power  of  any  man  on  earth,  who  would  judge  impartially, 
to  discover  in  what  the  superiority  consists  ;  or  that  there 
was  really  any  difference  at  all  between  them. 


CHAPTER  XXm. 

THE    MYSTICAL    SACRIFICE    OF    THE    PHCENICIANS. 

"  It  was  an  established  custom  among  the  ancient  Phoeni- 
cians, on  any  calamitous  or  dangerous  emergency,  for  the 
ruler  of  the  state  to  offer  up,  in  prevention  of  the  general 
ruin,  the  most  dearly-beloved  of  his  children,  as  a  ransom 
to  divert  the  divine  vengeance.  They  who  were  devoted 
for  this  purpose,  were  offered  mystically^  in  consequence  of 
an  example  which  had  been  set  this  people  by  the  God 
Kronus,  who,  in  a  time  of  distress,  offered  up  his  only  son 
to  his  father  Ouranus.  The  mystical  sacrifice  of  the 
Phoenicians  had  these  requisites  :  1st.  That  a  prince  was 
to  offer  it ;  2nd.  That  his  only  son  was  to  be  the  victim  ; 
3rd.  That  he  was  to  make  this  grand  sacrifice  invested  with 
the  emblems  of  royalty." — BryanCs  Observations  on  Ancient 
History,  quoted  in  Archbishop  Magee''s  Work  on  the  Atone- 
ment, vol.  1,  p.  388.  This  is  the  Archbishop  of  Dublin, 
whose  spirit,  temper,  and  conduct  are  so  strikingly  in 
harmony  with  those  he  ascribes  to  a  God  delighting  in 
blood  and  bloody  sacrifices,  famous  for  his  inexorable 
severity  in  the  government  of  his  diocese,  and  his  cruel 
treatment  of  the  inferior  clergy  ;  nor  less  distinguished  for 


168  CHRISHNA. 

the  convenient  flexibility  of  his  own  orthodoxy.  He  is 
known  in  private  to  laugh  at  the  folly  of  his  own  doc- 
trines, as  in  public  he  ventured  to  declare,  that  though  he 
believed  in  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  collec- 
tively, he  did  not  believe  in  them  separately. 

Here  is,  in  fact,  a  first  draft  of  the  whole  Christian 
scheme,  existing  in  a  country  neighbouring  on  Judea,many 
hundreds  of  years  before  it  became  moulded  into  its  present 
shape. 

Jesus  Christ,  the  son  of  a  king,  is  offered  by  God  to 
himself,  to  avert  his  own  vengeance,  and  this  is  repeatedly 
called  the  mystery  of  the  Gospel,  (Col.  i.  26).  Had  the  Gos- 
pel been  matter  of  fact,  there  could  have  been  no  mystery 
in  it. 

"And  they  put  on  him  a  scarlet  robe."  Matt,  xxvii.  28. 

"  And  they  clothed  him  with  purple."  Mark  xv.  17. 

"And  arrayed  him  in  a  gorgeous  robe."  Luke  xxiii.  11. 

'^' And  they  put  on  him  a  purple  robe."  John  xix.  2. 
And  set  up  over  his  head,  his  accusation,  written — 

"  This  is  Jesus,  the  King  of  the 

Jews."  Matt,  xxvii.  37. 

"  The  King  of  the  Jews."  Mark  xv.  26. 

"This  is  the  King  of  the  Jews."        Luke  xxiii.  38. 

"Jesus    of    Nazareth,    the    King 

OF  the  Jews."  John  xix.  19. 

Such  a  mockery  of  a  dying  malefactor,  never,  in  any 
other  instance,  disgraced  the  judicial  administration  of  a 
Roman  magistrate. 

The  addition  of  the  important  words,  Jesus  of  Mtzarethf 
in  the  later  Gospel  of  St.  John,  strongly  indicates  the 
intention  of  making  the  circumstances  of  a  previously 
existing  Gospel  apply  to  a  newly-invented  name  for  the 
old  hero. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

CHRISHNA. 

"  That  the  name  of  Chrishna,  and  the  general  out- 
line of  his  story,"  says  the  pious  and  learned  Sir  William 
Jones,  "  were  long  anterior  to  the  birth  of  our  Saviour,  and 


CHRISHNA.  169 

probably  to  the  time  of  Homer,  we  know  very  certainly.''^ — 
Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  l,p.  259. 

"  In  the  Sanscrit  Dictionary,  compiled  more  than  two 
thousand  years  ago,  we  have  the  whole  story  of  the  incar- 
nate deity  born  of  a  virgin,  and  miraculously  escaping  in 
his  infancy  from  the  reigning  tyrant  of  his  country." — 
Ibid.  pp.  259,  260.  267.  272,  273. 

"  I  am  persuaded,"  continues  this  great  author,  than 
whom  higher  authority  cannot  be  adduced — "  I  am  persua- 
ded, that  a  connection  existed  between  the  old  idolatrous 
nations  of  Egypt,  India,  Greece,  and  Italy,  long  before  the 
time  of  Moses." — Ibid.  p.  259. 

"  Very  respectable  natives  have  assured  me,  that  one 
or  two  missionaries  have  been  absurd  enough  in  their 
zeal  for  the  conversion  of  the  Gentiles,  to  urge,  that  the 
Hindus  were  even  now  almost  Christians  ;  because  their 
Brahma,  Vishnou  and  Mahesa,  were  no  other  than  the 
Christian  Trinity  :  a  sentence,  in  which  we  can  only  doubt 
whether  folly,  ignorance,  or  impiety,  predominates.  The 
Indian  triad,  and  that  of  Plato,  which  he  calls  the  Supreme 
Good,  the  Reason,  and  the  Soul,  are  infinitely  removed 
from  the  holiness  and  sublimity  of  the  doctrine  which 
pious  Christians  have  deduced  from  the  texts  in  the  Gos- 
pel."-/itV?.  p.  272. 

The  celebrated  poem  Bhagavat,  contains  a  prolix  ac- 
count of  the  life  of  Chrishna  :— "  Chrishna,  the  incar- 
nate deity  of  the  Sanscrit  romance,  continues  to  this 
hour  the  darling  god  of  the  Indian  women.  The  sect  of 
Hindus,  who  adore  him  with  enthusiastic  and  almost 
exclusive  devotion,  have  broached  a  doctrine  which  they 
maintain  with  eagerness,  that  he  was  distinct  from  all  the 
avatars  (or  prophets),  who  had  only  a  portion  of  his 
divinity,  whereas  Chrishna  Was  the  person  of  Vishnou 
(God)  himself  in  a  human  form."* — Ibid.  p.  260. 

Chrishna  was  believed  to  have  been  born  from  the  left 
intercostal  rib  of  a  virgin  of  the  royal  line  of  Devaci. 
"  He  passed  a  life  of  a  most  extraordinary  and  incom- 
prehensible nature.  His  birth  was  concealed,  through 
fear  of  the  tyrant  Cansa,  to  whom  it  had  been  predicted 
that  one  born  at  that  time,  in  that  family,  would  destroy 
him.''— Ibid.  p.  259. 

"  He  was  fostered,  therefore,  in  Mat'hura,  by  an  honest 

*«  For  in  him  dwelleth  all  the  folness  of  the  Godhead  bodily." — 2  Colos- 
uans,  9. 

16 


170  CHRISHNA. 

herdsman,   surnamed   Ananda,   or  the   Happy,    and  his 
amiable  wife,  Yasoda." — Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  1,  p.  260. 

"  Chrishna,  when  a  boy,  slew  the  terrible  serpent  Cali- 
ya,  with  a  number  of  serpents  and  monsters.  He  passed 
his  youth  in  playing-  with  a  party  of  milk-maids  ;  and  at 
the  age  of  seven  years,  he  held  up  a  mountain  on  the  tip 
of  his  little  finger.  He  saved  multitudes,  partly  by  his 
arms,  and  partly  by  his  miraculous  powers.  He  raised 
the  dead,  by  descending  for  that  purpose  to  the  lowest  re- 
srions.  He  was  the  meekest  and  best-tempered  of  beings. 
He  washed  the  feet  of  the  Brahmins,  and  preached  very 
nobly  indeed,  and  sublimely,  but  always  in  their  favour. 
He  was  pure  and  chaste  in  reality,  but  exhibited  an  ap- 
pearance of  excessive  libertinism ;  and  had  wives  or  mis- 
tresses too  numerous  to  be  counted.  Lastly,  he  was  be- 
nevolent and  tender,  yet  fermented  and  conducted  a  ter- 
rible war.''— Ibid.  p.  273. 

"  The  adamantine  pillars  of  our  faith  cannot  be  shaken 
by  an  investigation  of  heathen  mythology.  I,  who  cannot 
help  believing  the  divinity  of  the  Messiah,  from  the  undis- 
puted antiquity,  and  manifest  completion  of  many  prophe- 
cies, &c.  am  obliged,  of  course,  to  believe  the  sanctity  of 
the  venerable  books  to  which  that  sacred  person  refers." 
—Ibid.  p.  233. 

The  above  extracts  are  taken  literally  from  the  1st  vol- 
ume of  the  Asiatic  Researches,  chapter  9th,  on  the  Gods 
of  Greece,  Italy,  and  India,  written  in  1784,  and  since  re- 
vised by  the  president.  Sir  William  Jones. 

I  have  thought  it  supremely  important  to  present  the 
text  of  this  great  author,  and  leave  the  reader  to  draw  his 
own  conclusion.  Higher  authority  could  not  be  quoted. 
One  better  acquainted  with  the  Hindostanee  language,  and 
with  the  documents  and  evidence  from  which  such  infor- 
mation could  be  acquired,  could  hardly  be  conceived  to 
exist ;  and  certainly,  never  was  any  man  further  from  the 
intention  of  supplying  arms  to  infidelity.  The  unques- 
tionable orthodoxy  of  Sir  William  Jones  must,  therefore, 
give  to  admissions  surrendered  by  him,  the  utmost  degree 
of  cogency ;  while  his  unequalled  and  unrivalled  learning 
stands  as  a  tower  of  strength,  to  render  our  position  im- 
•  pregnable,  upon  the  lines  to  which  he  has  authorized  our 
advance,  and  recognized  our  right. 

Nothing  in  the  whole  compass   of  ecclesiastical  history 

has  so  perplexed  and  distressed  the  modern  advocates  of 

,    Christianity,  as  these  surrenders  made  by  their  own  best 


CHRISHNA.  171 

and  ablest  champion,  to  the  cause  of  infidelity.  Our  evan- 
gelical polemics,  indeed,  lose  all  temper  upon  hearing  but 
an  allusion  to  this  most  unluckily  discovered  prototype  of 
their  Jewish  deity.  No  language  of  insolence  against 
those  who  point  out  the  resemblance,  is  too  outrageous — 
no  shift  or  sophistication  to  evade  or  conceal  it,  too  pitiful. 
The  sun  is  not  more  dissimilar  to  the  moon,  say  our 
Unitarian  divines,  than  is  Chrishna  to  Christ.*  No  man  in 
his  senses,  say  our  evangelicals,  could  believe  that  the 
two  personages  were  identical.  Our  Methodists  f  meanly 
and  pitifully  alter  the  spelling  of  the  name  from  the  orig- 
inal orthography,  which  rests  on  the  high  authority  of  Sir 
William  Jones,  and  invariably  print  it  as  Krishnu^  or  Krish- 
na, to  screen  the  resemblance  from  the  eye's  observance  ; 
while  they  accuse  their  opponents  of  spelling  it  as  they 
do  (correctly),  for  the  contrary  purpose  of  making  »the 
resemblance  more  strikinsr. 


DR.    BENTLEY'S    THEORY. 

Dr.  Bentley,  as  a  dernier  resource,  flies  to  astrology — 
source  inexhaustible  of  all  that  is  wild  in  conjecture,  and 
delusive  in  argumentation,  to  supply  his  drowning  hypo- 
thesis with  a  straw  to  swim  on.  "  My  attention,"  says  he, 
"  was  first  drawn  to  this  subject,  by  finding  that  a  great 
many  Hindu  festivals  marked  in  the  calendar,  had  every 
appearance  of  being  modern  ;  for  they  agreed  with  the 
modern  astronomy  only,  and  not  with  the  ancient.  I  ob- 
served also  several  passages  in  the  Geeta  having  a  refer- 
ence to  the  new  order  of  things.  I  was,  therefore,  indu- 
ced to  make  particular  inquiries  about  the  time  of  Krishna^ 
who,  I  was  satisfied,  was  not  near  so  ancient  as  pretended-l 
In  these  inquiries,  I  was  told  the  usual  story,  that  Krishna 
lived  a  great  many  ages  ago ;  that  he  was  contemporary 
with  Yudheshthira ;  that  Garga,  the  astronomer,  was  his 
priest ;  and  that  Garga  was  present  at  his  birth,  and  de- 

*  Rev.  Mr.  Beard's  Third  Letter  to  the  Author,  p.  87. 

t  Rev.  Dr.  John  Pye  Smith,  in  Answer  to  the  Author,  p.  54.  A  truly  sublime 
specimen  of  evangelical  malignity.  This  holy  Parthian  throws  his  stone,  and  pro- 
tects himself  under  pretence  of  treating  his  adversary  with  contempt  ! 

tHe  was  satisfied,  it  seems,  before  he  began  to  inquire — a  pretty  good  security 
to  ensure  that  the  result  of  his  inquiry  would  be  satisfactory.  He  who  is  in  pos- 
session of  what  he  pretends  to  seek  for,  before  he  commences  his  search,  will  be 
sure  to  know  when  and  where  to  find  it. 


172  CHRISHNA. 

termined  the  position  of  the  planets  at  that  moment ; 
which  position  was  still  preserved  in  some  books  to  be 
foimd  among-  the  astronomers  :  besides  which,  there  was 
mention  made  of  his  birth  in  the  Harivansa,  and  other 
Paranas.  These  I  examined,  but  found  they  were  insuffi- 
cient to  point  out  the  time  ;*  I  therefore  directed  my  atten- 
tion towards  obtaining  the  Janampatra  of  Krishna,  con- 
taining- the  positions  of  the  planets  at  his  birth,  which  at 
length  I  was  fortunate  to  meet  with  ;f  from  which  it  ap- 
pears that  Chrishna  was  born  on  the  23d  of  the  moon 
Sravana."  The  writer  then  gives  the  position  of  the 
planets  at  the  birth  of  Krishna,  and  states  that  "  they 
place  the  time  of  the  fiction  in  the  year  a.  d.  600,  on  the 
7th  of  August,  at  midnight." — Bentley  on  Ancient  and  Mod- 
ern Hindu  Jlstronomy,  quoted  by  Mr.  Beard,  in  his  3rd  Let- 
ter to  the  Author,  p.  90, 

Dr.  Bentley  is  indeed  a  name  of  first-rate  honour  among 
Christian  theologues,  and  is  freqCiently  appealed  to  as  one 
of  their  highest  authorities,  "the  learned  Bentley,"  "the 
prince  of  critics,"  &c.  The  reader,  however,  cannot  be 
better  led  to  judge  how  he  should  appreciate  this  great 
man's  decision,  than  by  consulting  the  temper  and  spirit 
which  appears  in  the  annexed  specimen  of  his  manner  of 
answering  the  objections  of  unbelievers,  and  which  I  find 
quoted  by  his  zealous  admirer  :— "  What  a  scheme  would 
these  men  make?  What  worthy  rules  would  they  pre- 
scribe to  Providence  ?  And  pray,  to  what  great  use  or  de- 
sign ?  To  give  satisfaction  to  a  few  obstinate,  untractable 
wretches  ;  to  those  who  are  not  convinced  by  Moses  and 
the  prophets,  but  want  one  to  come  from  the  dead  and 
convert  them  !  Such  men  mistake  the  methods  of  Provi- 
dence, and  the  very  fundamentals  of  religion,  which  draws 
its  votaries  by  the  cords  of  a  man  ;  by  rational,  ingenuous, 
and  moral  motives ;  not  by  conviction  mathematical,  not 
by  new  evidence  miraculous,  to  silence  every  doubt  and 
whim  that  impiety  and  folly  can  suggest.  And  yet  all 
this  would  have  no  effect  upon  such  spirits  and  disposi- 
tions. If  they  now  believe  not  Christ  and  his  Apostles, 
neither  would  they  believe  if  their  own  schemes  were 
complied  with." — Pldleleuthems  Lipsiensis,  p.  114. 

The  reader  is  here  in  full  possession  of  the  Christian 
argument.  He  nmst  bear  in  mind,  however,  that  the 
argument,  as  thus  far  stated,  is  entirely  in  Christian  hands. 

*  Aye,  to  be  sure  !  to  be  sure  !  they  pointed  the  wrong  way  ! 

t  O  fortunate  fellow  !  I'd  have  sworn  he  would  have  met  with  it  I 


CHRISHNA.  173 

Had  we  ventured  to  supply  to  these  admissions,  the  fur- 
ther discoveries  which  inibelieving-  historians  have  made, 
we  mio;ht  have  enriched  our  matter  with  the  still  more 
striking-  coincidence  of  the  facts ;  that  the  reputed  father 
of  Chrislma  was  a  carpenter^  and  that  he  was  put  to  death 
at  last  betiveen  tivo  thieves ;  after  which,  he  arose  from  the 
dead,  and  returned  ag-ain  to  liis  heavenly  seat  in  Vaicon- 
tha  ;  leaving  the  instructions  contained  in  the  Geeta  to  be 
preached  through  the  continent  of  India  by  his  disconso- 
late son,  and  disciple  Arjun." 

Tractable  indeed,  and  easy  of  faith,  must  the  adopters  of 
Dr.  Bentley's  explanation  of  the  matter  be,  who  can  suffer 
evidence  of  this  character,  yielded  and  supplied  as  it  is, 
by  authority  as  great  as  any  they  can  pretend,  and  that 
authority  too,  entirely  adverse  to  our  deductions,  to 
be  swept  away  hy  psalmistry,  by  a  calculation  of  the  posi- 
tion of  the  planets  ;  or  defeated  by  a  sagacious  discovery 
of  some  chronological  discrepancy,  which  Dr.  Bentley, 
who  was  satisfied  that  it  was  there  before  he  looked  for  it, 
found  in  the  Janampatra. 

The  exquisite  accuracy  of  the  astrological  demonstra- 
tion, that  Krishna  was  born  on  the  7th  of  August,  a.  d. 
600,  at  midnight ;  can  only  be  put  on  tlie  same  footing  with 
the  chronology  of  Julius  Africanus,  who  has  in  like  man- 
ner demonstrated  that  the  world  was  made  on  the  1st  of 
September,  and  was  exactly  five  thousand  five  hundred 
and  eight  years,  three  months,  and  twenty-five  days  old 
at  the  birth  of  Christ. 

The  argument  against  the  antiquity  of  the  Hindu  my- 
thology, from  the  discovery  that  "  a  great  many  of  its 
festivals,  as  now  observed,  agree  with  the  modern  astron- 
omy only,  and  not  with  the  ancient,"  is  of  no  more 
validity,  than  if  it  were  objected  (as  with  equal  truth  it 
might  be)  that  the  time  of  celebrating  our  Christian  fes- 
tivals has  in  like  manner  been  accommodated  to  more 
modern  arrangements  of  our  calendar,  and  agrees  not  with 
the  ancient  astronomy.  When  the  Hindu  astronomers 
at  any  time  found  it  convenient  to  alter  their  calendar,  it 
was  surely  as  competent  in  them  to  make  the  times  of  cel- 
ebrating their  ancient  festivals  agree  with  their  improved 
knowledge  of  astronomy ;  as  it  was  for  our  Christian  as- 
tronomers to  alter  the  style,  and  to  fix  the  celebration  of 
Easter  and  Whitsuntide  to  different  seasons  of  the  year 
from  those  in  which  they  had  been  observed  for  previous 
ages. 

16* 


174  CHRISHNA. 

As  for  all  the  uncertainty  with  respect  to  the  alleg-ed 
time  of  the  birth  of  Chrishna,  there  is  but  little  ground  for 
the  advantage  of  Christians,  who  have  never  yet  been 
able  to  fix  the  date  of  the  day,  or  month,  or  even  of  the 
year  of  the  birth  of  Christ. 

"The  year  in  which  it  happened,"  says  Mosheim,* 
"  has  not  hitherto  been  fixed  with  certainty,  notwithstand- 
ing the  deep  and  laborious  researches  of  the  learned." 
The  learned  John  Albert  Fabricius  has  collected  all  the 
opinions  of  the  learned  on  the  subject  :f  that  which  ap- 
pears most  probable  is,  that  it  happened  about  a  year  and 
six  months  before  the  death  of  Herod,  in  the  year  of  Rome 
748  or  749.  "The  imcertainty,  however,  of  this  point," 
continues  our  great  ecclesiastical  historian,  "  is  of  no  great 
consequence.  We  know  that  the  Sun  of  Righteousness 
has  shone  upon  the  world  ;  and  although  we  cannot  fix 
the  precise  period  in  which  he  arose,  this  will  not  preclude 
us  from  enjoying  the  direction  and  influence  of  his  vital 
and  salutary  beams." 

This  is  the  most  unfortunate  figure  of  speech  (if  it  be  no 
more  than  a  figure  of  speech)  that  Christians  could  possi- 
bly resort  to ;  since,  instead  of  raising  and  exalting  our 
ideas  of  the  divine  Saviour  above  all  associations  with  the 
wild  conceits  of  the  heliolatry  and  idolatry  of  the  heathen 
world,  it  brings  us  at  once  to  the  irresistible  apprehension, 
that  the  Christian  Saviour,  after  all,  is  no  more  than  what 
the  ^sculapius,  Hercules,  Adonis,  Bacchus,  Apollo,  and 
Chrishna  were  ;  that  is,  an  emblematical  personification  of 
the  Sun. 

"Colonel  Valency,"  says  Sir  William  Jones,  "assures 
me  that  Chrishna  in  Irish  means  the  Sun." — Asiatic  Re- 
searches, vol.  1,  p.  262. 

The  taking  of  the  name  of  a  thing  in  any  unknown  lan- 
guage for  the  name  of  a  person,  would  naturally  render 
these  personifications  infinite  ;  and  cause  the  natural  his- 
tory of  things  icithout  life  to  be  related  or  understood  as  if 
they  had  been  real  adventures  of  actually  existing  person- 
ages. Hence,  have  we  actions  and  sufferings,  sentiments 
and  affections,  and  all  that  could  be  predicated  of  rational 
beings — predicated  not  only  of  animals,  but  of  vegetables 
and  inanimate  substances,  of  the  works  of  men's  hands, 
and  even  of  the  abstractions  of  their  thoughts.  The  ship 
Jlrgo,  in  which  Jason  and  his  companions  sailed  for  the 

*  Ecclesiastical  History,  vol.  1,  p.   53. 

fin  his  Bibliogrnph.     Antiquar,  cap.  7,  sect.  10,  p.  187. 


CHRISHNA.  175 

golden  fleece,  had  its  imaginary  moral  qualities  ;  it  fought 
the  waves,  it  .suffered,  it  conquered,  it  was  translated  into 
hea,ven.  The  disposition  of  mind  called  charity^  is 
described  by  St.  Paul,  under  all  the  circumstances  that 
could  be  imagined  of  a  most  accomplished  and  lovely 
woman:  '■'■She  suJJQretk  long^  and  is  kind;  she  doth  not 
behave  herself  unseemly^  seeketh  not  her  oivn,  is  not  easily  provok- 
ed,'''' &c.  (1  Cor.  xiii.);  though  nothing  could  be  further 
from  his  intention,  than  that  we  should  take  charity  to  be 
a  person  who  had  a  real  existence,  and  fall  to  the  folly  of 
endeavouring  to  find  out  when  she  was  born,  under  what 
king's  reign,  and  in  what  country,  &c.;  as  it  may  be  con- 
jectured some  have  done  with  respect  to  other  personifi- 
cations, whose  existence,  actions  and  sufferings,  were  of 
an  equally  metaphorical  and  figurative  origination.  But 
if  the  identity  of  the  snythological  personages,  Christ  and 
Chrishna,  and  the  absolute  deriv£ition  of  the  Christian 
from  the  Hindu  or  Brahminical  religion,  might  yet  seem 
matter  rather  of  curious  excogitation,  than  of  satisfactory 
proof ;  the  matter  receives  the  utmost  corroboration  which 
any  historical  fact  of  such  remote  antiquity,  could  be 
conceived  to  have,  from  the  entire  discomfiture  and  over- 
throw of  all  attempts  to  evade  the  conclusion,  which  we 
achieve  in  the  strength  of  further  researches,  later  dis- 
coveries, and  ampler  concessions  won  from  the  convic- 
tion of  the  most  intelligent  of  Christians  themselves,  who 
have  dared  to  trust  themselves  with  the  important  inves- 
tigation. 

We  have  become  better  acquainted  with  the  evidences 
of  the  Christian  religion  than  it  was  possible  for  the  Lard- 
ners,  Watsons,  or  Paleys  to  have  been. — We  have  means 
of  information  which  they  had  not. — We  are  in  possession 
of  intelligence,  the  result  of  more  extensive  research,  of 
more  impartial  enquiry,  and  of  more  recent  discoveries, 
of  which  they  were  absolutely  ignorant. 

No  work  whatever,  of  the  divines  of  the  now  antiqua- 
ted school  of  Christian-evidence  writers,  can  be  fairly  ad- 
duced either  as  authority  or  argument,  against  the  thou- 
sand-fold more  formidable  array  of  objections,  which  have 
emerged  even  within  the  last  ten  years,  from  the  further 
concessions  made  by  divines  themselves,  from  the  improv- 
ed powers  of  reasoning,  advanced  science,  extended 
knowledge,  and  greater  moral  courage  of  unbelievers,  to 
bring  up  that  science  and  knowledge  to  the  conflict. 

To  pretend  any  longer  that  infidels  insist  only  on  argu- 


176  CHRISHNA. 

merits  that  have  already  been  answered,  or  refuted,  is  to 
discover  the  grossest  ignorance  of  what  their  arg-uments 
really  are,  and  in  that  ignorance  to  find  the  only  excuse 
for  what  such  a  pretence  really  is,-r-the  grossest  false- 
hood. 

To  pretend  to  refer  the  anxious  mind  for  the  solution 
of  its  doubts  to  any  defence  of  the  Christian  relig-ion 
written  earlier  than  the  present  century,  is  but  parallel  in 
absurdity  to  the  setting  a  medical  student  of  the  present 
day  to  acquire  his  knowledge  of  chymistry  and  physic 
from  the  cumbrous  folios  of  Paracelsus,  Bombastus,  or 
the  Commentaries  of  Van  Sweeten,  Hippocrates,  and 
Galen. 

After  the  unmeasured  abuse,  and  bitter  vituperations 
which  I  have  incurred  for  the  prominence  which  I  have 
given  to  this  most  pregnant  argument,  I  find  Godfrey 
Higgins,  Esq.  of  Skellow  Grange,  Yorkshire,  himself  a 
very  learned,  ingenious  *  and  sincere  Christian,  in  his 
superb  work  on  the  Celtic  Druids,  published  by  R.  Hunter, 
1827,  thus  laying  at  our  feet,  the  keys  of  the  fortress, 
in  the  assault  of  which,  I  have  taken  such  hard  words, 
hard  usage,  and  every  thing  that  was  hard,  except  hard 
arguments  : — 

"  After  Baillie,  and  some  other  learned  astronomers 
had  turned  their  attention  to  the  ancient  astronomical  in- 
struments, calculations  and  observations,  of  India,  it  was 
discovered  that  they  proved  the  antiquity  of  the  world  to 
be  so  great,  that  what  was  called  by  our  priests,  the 
Mosaic  system  of  chronology,  could  not  be  supported. 
Immediately  upon  this,  they  set  every  engine  at  work  to 
counteract  the  effects  of  the  recorded  observations  of  the 
Hindus,  by  representing  that  they  are,  in  fact,  merely 
pretended  observations  founded  on  back-reckonings. 

"  Professor  Playfair  of  Edinburgh,  has  given  the  most 
decisive  proofs  in  the  Edinburgh  Philosophical  Transactions,  f 
that  the  Brahmins,  to  have  made  the  back-reckonings, 
must  have  been  well  acquainted  with  the  most  refined  of 
the  theoretical  improvements  of  modern  astronomy.  In- 
stead of  having  forgot  the  principles  of   their  formulae, 

*  Mr.  Iliggins  must  forgive  my  hoping,  that  his  false  way  of  spelling  Chrishna 
(which  is  certainly  Chrishna,  and  not  Krishna,)  may  not  be  an  exception  against 
his  ingenuousness.  It  was  very  natural  that  he  should  endeavour  to  bring  his 
Christ  out  of  the  scrape  as  well  as  he  could,  and  save  his  Saviour  I  But  Krishna, 
or  Chrishna  is  fatal  to  Chrl-^t,  spell  him  e'en  as  you  will  !  » 

t  See  Vol.  2,  and  Vol.  4. 


CHRISHNA.  177 

they  must  have  been  much  more  learned  than  we  know 
they  were,  and  in  fact  than  their  ancestors  ;  indeed  more 
learned  than  our  modern  astronomers  were,  until  the  as- 
tronomical theories  of  JYewton  were  completed  very  lately, 
by  the  discoveries  of  some  of  the  French  philosophers." 

"Near  the  city. of  Benares,  in  India,  are  the  astrono- 
mical instruments  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock  of  a  moun- 
tain, which  in  former  times,  were  used  for  making-  the 
observations,  which  Sir  William  Jones  and  the  priests 
say,  were  only  back-reckoning's.  The  Bramins  of  the 
present  day,  it  is  said,  do  not  know  the  use  of  them  ;  they 
are  of  g-reat  size,  and  tradition  states  them  to  be  of  the 
most  remote  antiquity.  If  th^  astronomical  facts  stated 
in  the  works  of  the  Bramins,  be  the  effects  of  the  back- 
reckonings,  the  Bramins  of  the  present  day  are  as  ignorant 
of  the  formulse  on  which  they  are  grounded,  as  they  are 
of  the  nature  of  the  astronomical  instruments.  If  they 
have  become  acquainted  with  them,  it  is  by  the  instruction 
of  Europeans." 

"  A  gentleman,  in  the  Asiatic  Researches,  has  lately, 
by  means  of  the  most  deeply  learned  and  laborious  cal- 
culations,* discovered  that  the  history  of  Krishna,  one  of 
the  most  celebrated  Gods  of  the  Hindoos,  was  invented 
in  the  year  of  Christ  six  hundred  ;  and  that  the  story  was 
laid  about  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  sera.  This  goes 
directly  to  overthrow  all  the  Hindoo  calculations.  He 
has  proved  this  as  clear  as  the  sun  at  noon  !  He  has 
absolutely  demonstrated  it !  but  it  is  unfortunate  for  this 
demonstration,  that  the  statue  of  this  God  is  to  be  found  in 
the  very  oldest  caves  and  temples  throughout  all  India, 
— temples,  the  inscriptions  on  which  are  in  a  language 
used  previously  to  the  Sanscrit,  and  now  totally  unknown 
to  all  mankind,  any  day  to  be  seen  amongst  other  places, 
in  the  city  of  Seringham,  and  the  temple  at  Malvalipuram." 

It  has  been  moreover  satisfactorialy  proved,  on  the 
authority  of  a  passage  of  Adrian,  that  the  worship  of 
Krishna  was  practised  in  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great 
(330  years  before  Christ),  at  what  still  remains  one  of  the 
most  famous  temples  of  India,  the  temple  of  Mathura,  on 
the  Jumna,  the  Matura  Deorum  of  Ptolemy.  So  much  for 
this  astronomical  demonstration.''^ — Celtic  Druids,  pp.  154, 
155,  156,  157. 

*  These  "  laborious  calculations,"  are  Dr.  Bentley's  wretched  shifts  to  save 
Christianity . 


178  CHRISHNA. 

"  It  seems  the  miraculously  and  stupendously  learned 
Bentley,  who  was  to  put  all  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  to 
silence,  has  reckoned  without  his  host  ;  and  in  discover- 
ing by  help  of  the  Janampatra,  that,  from  a  certain  relative 
location  of  the  planets,  it  would  appear  that  Chrishnawas 
born  on  the  7th  of  August,  a.  d.  GOO,  at  midnight  ;  it 
happened  most  unfortunately  for  his  learned  wiseacreship, 
not  to  occur  to  him,  that  all  these  facts  of  the  locations  of 
the  planerts,  are  periodical — so  that  if  he  be  right,  that 
the  time  of  the  birth  of  Chrishna  can  be  inferred  from 
such  a  location  and  the  circumstances  attending  it,  (a  thing 
in  itself  very  doubtful) ;  all  that  he  will  prove,  will  be,  that 
the  pretended  birth  of  this* God  must  have  taken  place, 
at  a  similar  part  of  a  period,  some  time  before  the  war  of 
Alexander  the  Great.  And  thus,  if  we  know  the  length 
of  the  period  or  cycle  referred  to,  we  shall  know  the  latest 
time  at  which  this  God  was  feigned  to  be  born  before  the 
birth  of  Alexander. "  Mr.  Higgins  informs  us,  that  when  our 
army,  of  Indian  Seapoys  arrived  at  Thebes  in  Egypt  in  the 
course  of  the  French  war,  they  discovered  their  favourite 
God  Chrishna,  and  instantly  fell  to  worshipping,  (no 
doubt  the  cunning  rogues  of  Bramins*  came  to  Egypt  in 
the  year  600,  and  placed  his  statue  amongst  the  ruins  !") 

"  I  made  every  attempt  my  time  would  permit,"  says 
Col.  Fitzclarence,  "  to  discover  the  celebrated  figure  which 
caused  the  Hindoos  with  the  Indian  contingent,  to  find 
fault  with  the  natives  of  this  country,  for  allowing  a  tem- 
ple of  Vishnou  to  fall  to  ruins  ;  but  did  not  succeed."! 

"  I  could  say  much  more,"  says  Mr.  Higgins,  "  on  the 
subject  of  this  temple  at  Matlmra,  for  it  is  very  curious — 
but  I  much  prefer  letting  it  alone  !  !  !" — Celtic  Druids,  p.  157. 

In  the  name  of  God,  what  means  this  letting  it  alone  9 
Christians  have  to  thank  their  persecuting  City  Alder- 
men, their  prompt  recourse  to  the  arguments  of  stone 
and  iron,  their  Dorchester  and  Oakham  ;  that  when  really 
learned  and  intelligent  men  tread  on  the  threshhold  of  the 
most  important  discoveries,  they  much  prefer  ^'■letting it 
alone,''''  and  leaving  us  to  guess,  where  we  might  certainly 
have  known. 

In  this  dilemma,  we  may  guess  with  a  conviction  little 
short  of  certainty — that  it  was  never  a  little  that  priests 
would  boggle  at — 1 .  That  the  celebrated  figure  which  Col. 
Fitzclarence  was  hindered  from  seeing,  would  have  estab- 

*  1  his siircasm  is  very  severe,  but  it  is  from  tliepen  of  Christian  Mr.  Higgins,  a 
believer  in  divine  revehition. 
I  In  his  Travels,  pp.  393,  394. 


CHRISHNA.  179 

lished  the  absolute  identity  of  the  Indian  Chrishna  and 
the  Egyptian  Christ  : 

In  confirmation  of  this  guess  (if  it  be  no  more),  we  have 
the  further  Hg-ht  of  an  admission  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mau- 
rice, of  the  curious  fact,  that  "  the  two  principal  pagodas 
of  India,  viz.  those  of  Benares  and  Mathura,  are  built  in 
the  form  of  crosses."* 

2.  That  the  grounds  on  which  the  Hindoos  found  fault 
with  the  British  government  for  allowing  a  temple  of 
Vishnou  to  fall  to  ruins,  was,  that  the  Christian  religion 
was  absolutely  one  and  the  same  with  the  ancient  Hindoo 
idolatry  : 

3.  That  the  travelling  Egyptian  Therapeuts  brought 
the  whole  story  from  India  to  their  monasteries  in' 
Egypt,  where,  some  time  about  the  commencement  of  the 
Roman  monarchy,  it  was  transmuted  into  Christianity. 
The  tales  that  had  been  previously  told  of  the  idol  of  the 
Ganges,  were  transferred  to  the  twice-living  demon  of  the 
Jordan,  precisely  as  we  see  the  histories  of  the  Grecian 
heroes,  plagiarized  and  told  over  again  of  Romans.  Thus 
the  combat  of  the  Horatii  and  Curiatii,  had  been  related 
under  different  names,  but  with  the  same  circumstances, 
by  Democrates  apud  Stobmum.  The  action  of  Mutius 
ScfEvola  was  told  before  of  Agesilaus,  and  that  of  Curtius 
precipitating  himself  into  the  gulf,  has  been  ascribed  also 
to  a  son  of  King  Midas.  See  also  Pagan  heroes  turned 
into  Christian  saints,  out  of  number  :  indeed,  half  the 
saints  of  the  Roman  calendar  are  heathen  gods  and  god- 
desses, and  like  the  Jewish  Jesus,  a  false  creation  pro- 
ceeding from  the  heat-oppressed  brain. 

4.  And  lastly,  that  the  Missionaries  engaged  by  the 
East  India  Company,  and  otherwise  sent  to  India  for  the 
ostensible  purpose  of  propagating  the  gospel,  are  employed 
really  in  the  diametrically  opposite  work,  of  doing  their 
utmost  to  suppress  it  ;  and  to  carry  on  the  counsel  which 
we  see  guiding  their  machinations  at  home,  suppressing 
evidence,  perverting  facts,  destroying  or  hindering  the 
monuments  of  antiquity  from  coming  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  community,  persecuting  and  railing  at  infidels,  and 
keeping  up  that  state  of  general  ignorance  and  consequent 
devotion,  that  best  disposes  enslaved  and  degraded  millions 
to  bow  to  the  yoke  of  tyranny,  and  "  to  order  themselves 
lowly  and  reverently  to  all  their  betters." 

*  Maurice's  Indian  Antiquities,  vol.  2,  p.  361,  quoted  by  Mr.  Higgins,  p.  127, 
Celtic  Di-uids.  1-  >!  J  6S     .  F         . 


180 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

APOLLO JESUS    CHRIST. 

Cicero  mentions  four  of  this  name.  Pausanias  and 
Herodotus,  rank  Apollo  among  the  Egyptian  deities. 
Diodorus  Sicukis  expressly  states,  that  Isis,  after  having- 
invented  the  practice  of  medicine,  taught  this  art  to  her 
son  Orus,  named  also  Apollo,  who  was  the  last  of  the 
Gods  that  reigned  in  Egypt.  It  is  easy  to  trace  almost 
ail  the  Grecian  fables  and  mythologies  from  Egypt.  If 
the  Apollo  of  the  Greeks,  was  said  to  be  the  son  of 
Jupiter,  it  was  because  Orus,  the  Apollo  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, had  Osiris  for  his  father,  whom  the  Greeks  con- 
founded with  Jupiter.  If  the  Greek  Apollo  were  reckoned 
the  God  of  eloquence,  music,  medicine,  and  poetry,  the 
reason  was,  that  Osiris,  who  was  the  symbol  of  the  sun 
among  the  Egyptians,  as  well  as  his  son  Orus,  had  there 
taught  those  liberal  arts.  If  the  Greek  Apollo  were  the 
God  and  conductor  of  the  muses,  it  was  because  Osiris 
carried  with  him  in  his  expedition  to  the  Indies,  singing 
women  and  musicians.  This  parallel  might  be  carried 
still  further,  but  enough  has  been  said  to  prove  that  the 
true  Apollo  was  probably  of  Egypt.  Plutarch,  however, 
has  decisively  shown,  that  the  Egyptians  worshipped  the 
Sun  under  the  name  of  Osiris  ;  and  as  Osiris  was  believed 
to  have  travelled  into  India,  and  there  established  civiliza- 
tion and  religion,  we  see  at  once  enough  to  account  for 
the  same  God  coming  to  be  worshipped  in  India  under  a 
designation  in  the  language  of  that  country  expressive  of 
the  same  sense  as  Chrishna,  that  is,  the  Sun.  Many  have 
doubted  whether  Apollo  were  a  real  personage,  or  only 
the  great  luminary.  Vossius  has  taken  pains  to  prove  this 
God  to  be  only  an  ideal  being,  and  that  there  never  was 
any  Apollo  but  the  sun.  All  the  ceremonies  performed  to 
his  honour,  had  a  manifest  relation  to  the  great  source  of 
light  which  he  represented  ;  whence,  this  learned  writer 
concludes  it  to  be  in  vain  to  seek  for  any  other  divinity 
than  the  sun,  adored  under  the  name  Apollo. 

Without  any  wish  to  overthrow  or  to  conflict 
against  a  conclusion  founded  upon  such  just  and  incon- 
trovertible premises,  one  yet  cannot  restrain  one's  wish 
to  have  known  whether  so  sincere  a  Christian,  in  con- 
sidering the  language  ascribed  to  the  God  Apollo,  and 
the  manifest  relation  to  the  great  source  of  light  in  ail 


APOLLO.  181 

the  ceremonies  performed  to  his  honour,  as  constituting 
a  complete  demonstration,  that  such  a  personage  as 
Apollo  never  had  any  real  existence,  and  that  it  was  the 
sun,  and  the  sun  only  that  was  worshipped  under  that 
designation  ;  whether  he  had  found  any  clearer  references 
to  the  source  of  light  in  that  language  and  those  ceremo- 
nies, than — 

1 .  That  God  should  be  believed  to  have  said  of  himself, 
^^  I  am  the  light  of  the  world.''— John  ix.  5.  "  /  ow  come 
a  light  into  the  world,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  me  should  not 
abide  in  darkness.'" — John  xii.  46. 

2.  ^'  He  hath  sent  me  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord.''— Luke  iv.  19.  i'  if        J 

3.  That  his  sacred  legends  should  abound  only  with 
such  expressions  as  can  have  no  possible  or  conceivable 
application,  but  to  the  God  of  day  :  "  ^  light  to  lighten  the 
Gentiles,  and  to  be  the  glory  (or  brightness)  of  his  people." — 
Luke  ii.  32. 

4.  That  this  should  be  the  express  message  which  his 
apostles,  or  months,  were  to  declare  concerning  him,  that 
J'  God  is  light y  and  in  him  is  no  darkness  at  all." — 1  John 
i.  5. 

5.  That  his  sincerest  worshippers  should  usually  have 
addressed  him  in  such  phrases  as  "  Phosphore  redde 
diem."— 

Sweet  Phosphor  bring  the  day, 
Whose  conqu'ring  ray 

May  chase  these  fogs, — sweet  Phosphor  bring  the  day. 
Quark's  rendering  of  Psalm  xiii. 

6.  "  Lighten  our  darkness  we  beseech  thee  Monai,  and  by  thy 
great  mercy  defend  us  from  all  perils  and  dangers  of  this  night." 
— Collect.,  in  Evening  Service. 

7.  "  God  of  God,  light  of  light,  very  God  of  very  God." — 
J^icene  Creed. 

8.  "  Merciful  Adonai,  we  beseech  thee  to  cast  thy  bright  beams  of 
light  upon  thy  church." — Collect  of  St.  John. 

9.  "  0  God,  who,  by  the  leading  of  a  star,  didst  manifest  thy 
only  begotten  Son  to  the  nations."— Collect  of  the  Epiphany.* 

10.  "  To  thee  all  angels  cry  aloud,  the  heavens,  and  all  % 
powers  therein." 

*  Or  shining  forth. — A  Christian  poet  will   best  instruct  us  what  star  that 
was.     It  was  none  other  than  Venus,  the  star  of  the  God  of  day, 
Fairest  of  stars,  last  in  the  train  of  night, 
If  better,  thou  belong  not  to  the  dawn — 
Sure  pledge  of  day,  that  crown'st  the  smiling  mom 
With  thy  bright  circlet ! — Morning  Hymn. 

17 


182  APOLLO. 

11.  "  Heaven  and  earth  are  full  of  the  majesty  of  thy 
Clary,"  (or  brightness). 

12.  "  The  clarions  company  of  the  (twelve  months,  or) 
apostles  praise  thee. 

13.  "  Thou  art  the  King  of  Clary,  0  Christ!" 

14.  "  When  thou  tookest  upon  thee  to  deliver  man,  thou  passest 
through  the  constellation,  or  zodiacal  sign — the  Virgin.''^ 

15.  "  fFhen  thou  hadst  overcome  the  sharpness  of  winter, 
thou  didst  open  the  kingdom  of  heaven, — i.  e.  bring  on  the 
reign  of  the  summer  months,  to  all  believers.''^  And  why- 
is  it  that  there  should  not  be  one  single  phrase  or  form 
of  speech  either  in  the  New  Testament  or  in  our  best 
Catholic  or  Protestant  liturgies,  but  in  the  most  strict 
and  literal  sense  is  predicable  of  the  sun,  but  cannot 
without  an  inflected  and  considerably  strained  use  of 
speech,  and  still  more  strained  eflfort  of  the  understand- 
ing, apply  to  the  person  of  a  man.  Resurgere,  to  rise  again; 
and  ascendere  in  coelum,  to  ascend  into  heaven,  are  expres- 
sions so  plain  and  obvious,  as  that  we  could  hardly  find 
any  to  express  the  literal  sense,  nearer,  of  what  we  witness 
of  the  rising  and  setting  sun  every  day  of  our  lives  ; 
whereas  'tis  only  by  a  most  awkward  and  violent  cata- 
chresis  in  language,  that  they  can  be  made  to  convey  their 
theological  significancy. 

"  All  are  agreed,"  says  Cicero,  "  that  Apollo  is  none 
other  than  the  Sun,  because  the  attributes  which  are 
commonly  ascribed  to  Apollo  do  so  wonderfully  agree 
thereto."* 

We  are  not  allowed,  however,  to  assume,  that  reasoning 
so  incontrovertibly  just  and  conclusive  with  respect  to 
the  Pagan  deity,  would  hold  in  any  parity  of  application 
to  Jesus  Christ,  whom  his  holy  Apostle  so  emphatically 
distinguishes  as  being  "  the  true  light  which  lighteth  every  man 
that  Cometh  into  the  world.'''' — John  i.  9. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  Apollo  was  more  gene- 
rally received  in  the  Pagan  world  than  any  other  deity, 
his  worship  being  so  universal,  that  in  almost  every  region 
he  had  temples,  oracles,  and  festivals,  as  innumerable  as 
his  various  names  and  attributes.  Among  the  most  con- 
spicuous of  his  oracles  were  those  of  Phocis,  at  Claros  in 
Ionia,  at  Delos,  Delphi,  and  Didyma,t  on  Mount  Ismenus, 

*  Apollnem,  aliud  nihil  esse  quam  Solem,  omnes  consentiunt,  quippe  cui  ilia 
qua;  ApoUini  vulgo  tribuuntur,  mir6  conveniuiit. —  Cic.  3.   De  JVatura  Deo. 

t  It  can  only  be  ascribed  to  a  momentary  suspension  of  the  divine  inflnence 
which  guided  the  pen  of  the  Evangelist,  that  one  of  the  epithets  of  Apollo — 
Didymus,  should  have  been  left  in  the  possession  of  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ.— 
John  XX.  24. 


MERCURY.  183 

in  Boeotia,  at  Larissa  among  the  Argives,  and  at  Heliopolis 
in  Egypt. 

"  The  Egyptians  sometimes  symbolized  him  by  a  radiated 
circle,  and  at  others  by  a  sceptre  with  an  eye  above  it — a 
symbol  which  we  see  at  this  day  consecrated  to  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  Christian  Providence.  Nor  should  we  forget 
the  claims  of  his  ministers  to  a  peculiar  character  of  sanc- 
tity and  holiness,  which  we  may  well  wonder  how  they 
should  ever  come  to  surrender  to  the  pretensions  of  preach- 
ers of  Christianity  :  unless,  indeed,  we  should  venture  to 
imagine  that  there  was  never  any  real  difference  between 
them,  and  that  the  priests  of  Apollo  and  of  Jesus  were 
ministers  of  the  same  religion,  and  of  one  and  the  same 
deity,  under  different  names.  'Tis  certain,  that  Apollo 
had  a  celebrated  shrine  at  Mount  Soracte  in  Italy,  where 
his  priests  were  so  remarkable  for  sanctity,  and  holiness 
of  heart  and  life,  that  they  could  walk  on  burning  coals 
unhurt." — BeWs  Panth.  in  loco. 

Parkhurst,  in  his  Hebrew  Lexicon,  under  the  word 
bbn  4,  informs  us,  that  "the  n^  hhr\ — '  Praise  ye  Jah  !'  or 
'  Hallelujah  !'  which  the  Septuagint  have  left  untrans- 
lated, -^A;.r;Aot/(«,  which  begins  and  ends  so  many  of  the 
Psalms,  ascribed  to  David,  was  a  solemn  form  of  praise  to 
God.,  which,  no  doubt,  was  far  prior  to  the  time  of  David  ; 
since  the  ancient  Greeks  had  their  similar  acclamation, 
Eitktv  ir, — '  Hallelujee  !'  with  which  they  both  began  and 
ended  their  ^jceans,  or  hymns,  in  honour  of  Apollo." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

MERCURV — JESUS  CHRIST. 

This  god  calls  for  no  further  notice  in  our  inquiry,  than 
from  the  circumstance  of  his  having  been  distinguished  in 
the  Pagan  world  by  the  evangelical  title  of  the  Logos,  or 
the  Word — "  The  Word  that  in  the  beginning  was  with 
God,  and  that  also  was  a  God." 

Our  Christian  writers,  from  whose  partial  pens  we  are 
now  obliged  to  gather  all  they  will  permit  us  to  know  of 
the  ancient  forms  of  piety,  discover  considerable  appre- 
hension, and  a  jealous  caution  in  their  language,  where 
the  resemblance  between  Paganism  and  Christianity 
might  be  apt  to  strike  the  mind  too  cogently.  Where 
Horace  gives  us  a  very  extraordinary  account  of  Mer- 


184  BACCHUS. 

cury's  descent  into  hell,*  and  his  causing  a  cessation  of 
the  sufferings  there,f  our  Christian  mythologist  checks  our 
curiosity,  by  the  sudden  break  off—"  As  this  perhaps 
may  be  a  mystical  part  of  his  character,  we  had  better  let 
it  alone." — BeWs  Panth.  vol.  2.  p.  72.  But  the  further 
back  we  trace  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion, 
the  less  concerned  we  find  its  advocates  to  maintain,  or 
even  to  pretend  that  there  was  any  difference  at  all  be- 
tween the  essential  doctrines  of  Christianity  and  Paganism. 

Ammonius  Saccus,  a  learned  Christian  Father,  towards 
the  end  of  the  second  century,  had  taught  with  the  highest 
applause  in  the  Alexandrian  school,  that  "all  the  Gentile 
religions,  and  even  the  Christian,  were  to  be  illustrated 
and  explained  by  the  principles  of  an  universal  philosophy ; 
but  that,  in  order  to  this,  the  fables  of  the  priests  were  to 
be  removed  from  Paganism,  and  the  comments  and  inter- 
pretations of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  from  Christianity  ;| 
while  Justin  Martyr,  the  first  and  most  distinguished 
apologist  for  the  Christian  religion,  who  wrote  within 
fifty  years  of  the  time  of  the  Evangelist  St.  John,  boldly 
challenges  the  respect  of  the  emperor  Adrian  and  his  son, 
as  due  to  the  Christian  religion,  just  exactly  on  the  score 
of  its  sameness  and  identity  with  the  ancient  Paganism. 

"For  by  declaring  the  Logos,  the  first  begotten  of  God, 
our  Master,  Jesus  Christ,  to  be  born  of  a  virgin  without 
any  human  mixture,  to  be  crucified  and  dead,  and  to  have 
risen  again  into  heaven  ;  we  say  no  more  in  this,  than 
what  you  say  of  those  whom  you  style  the  sons  of  Jove, 
&c.  As  to  the  son  of  God,  called  Jesus,  should  we  allow 
him  to  be  nothing  more  than  man,  yet  the  title  of  the  Son  of 
God  is  very  justifiable  upon  the  account  of  his  wisdom,  con- 
sidering that  you  have  your  Mercury  in  worship  under 
the  title  of  The  Word,  and  Messenger  of  God." — Reeve's 
Apologies  of  the  Fathers,  vol.  1,  London,  1716. 

Justin  might,  if  he  had  pleased,  have  been  still  more 
particular,  and  have  shown,  that  "  among  the  Gauls, 
more  than  a  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era,  in  the 
district  of  Chartres,  a  festival  was  annually  celebrated  to 
the  honour  of  the  Virgo  Paritura,  the  virgin  that  should  bring 
forth." — DupuiSj  torn.  3,  p.  51,  4to  edit. 

*  *'  He  descended  into  hell." — Apostles'  Creed.  "  That  he  went  down  into 
hell,  and  also  did  rise  again." — Baptistnal  Service.  "  By  which  also  he  went 
and  preached  unto  the  spirits  in  prison." — 1  Pet.  iii.  19. 

t  See  tlie  Apocryphal  Gospel  of  Nicodemus. 

i  Mosheim's  Eccl.  Hist.  vol.  1,  p.  171. 


THE  WORD.  '  185 

Gonzales  also  writes,  that  among-  the  Indians  he  found 
a  temple  Pariturse  Virginis,  of  the  virgin  about  to  bring  forth. 

The  good  Christian  Father  Epiphanias  glories  in  the 
fact,  that  the  prophecy,  "  Behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive  and 
bring  forth  a  swn,"  had  been  revealed  to  the  Egyptians. — 
Celtic  Druids,  p.  163.  This  prophecy,  however,  should 
rather  have  been  revealed  to  the  Irish,  as  its  literal  accom- 
plishment is  so  strikingly  of  a  piece  with  the  equally 
authentic  miracles  of  their  patron  saint,  who  sailed  across 
the  ocean  upon  a  mill-stone,  and  contrived  to  heat  an 
oven  red-hot  with  nothing  but  ice. — '■'■Life  of  the  glorious 
Bishop  St.  Patrick,  by  Fr.  B.  B.,  St.  Omers,  1625,  by  licence 
of  the  Censors  of  Louvaine,  of  the  Bishop  of  St.  Omers,  and  of 
the  Commissary  and  Definitor-general  of  the  Seraphic  Order.'''' 

THE    WORD JESUS    CHRIST. 

The  celebrated  passage,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word, 
and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  teas  God,^''  &c. 
(John  i.  1.)  is  a  fragment  of  some  Pagan  treatise  on  the 
Platonic  philosophy,  and  as  such  is  quoted  by  Amelius,  a 
Pagan  philosopher,  as  strictly  applicable  to  the  Logos,  or 
Mercury,  the  Word,  as  early  as  the  year  263  ;  and  is 
quoted  appropriately  as  an  honourable  testimony  borne  to 
the  Pagan  deity,  by  a  barbarian. 

With  no  intention  further  off,  than  that  of  recognizing 
the  claims  of  any  human  being  to  that  title,  Amelius  has 
the  words,  "And  this  plainly  was  the  Word,  by  whom 
all  things  were  made,  he  being  himself  eternal,  as  Hera- 
clitus  also  would  say  ;  and  by  Jove,  the  same  whom  the 
barbarian  affirms  to  have  been  in  the  place  and  dignity  of 
a  principal,  and  to  be  with  God,  and  to  be  God,  by  whom 
all  things  were  made,  and  in  whom  every  thing  that  was 
made,  has  its  life  and  being  ;  who,  descending  into  body, 
and  putting  on  flesh,  took  the  appearance  of  a  man,  though 
even  then  he  gave  proof  of  the  majesty  of  his  nature  ; 
nay,  and  after  his  dissolution,  he  was  deified  again."* 

This  is  the  language  of  one,  of  whom  there  is  not  the 
least  pretence  to   show   that  he  was  a  believer  of  the 

*  Kai  fnog  aoa  i}v  o  ^oyog,  xa&'ov  asi  ovra  ra  yivof.iiva  tytvtro,  wg  av  jtai  o 
Hqaxi-cirog  a|iwa«is  xai  vtj  di\  ov  o  ^aQfiaqog  a^iot  ev  Ti;?  aQXV?  Ta|«t  rt  xai  a£i« 
xa-9sorrixora  ttqo?  -^eov  eivui,di  e  Ttav&'  an^wi  ysytvijff^at  tv  co  to  ytvo^utnov  ttov 
xai  tTjv,  xai  or  nt<fvxevai  xai  stg  aio^iara  nnrttiv,  xai  aanxa  ivdvaaiitrov,  (pavTot- 
ta^ai  av9qwnov,  fitrcc  xai  re  rijvixavru  dtixvvtiv  tj;?  (fvoeaic  ro  fttyaXeiov  ausXei 
xai  avaXvd'ivra  naXiv  avaStuo&ai  xai  Stov  eivat,  oiog  tjv  ttqo  ro  tig  auifia  xai  tij? 
caxa  xai  rov  ar-^Qianov  xarax^inat. — Euseb.  prcep.  Evan  lib.  xi.  C.  19.  Ci- 
tante  Lardnero,  torn.  4,  p.  200. 

17* 


186  BACCHUS. 

Gospel,  or  even  if  he  had  ever  heard  of  it,  that  he  did  not 
reject  it  ;  it  was  the  language  of  clear,  undisguised,  and 
unmingled  Paganism.  The  Logos  then,  or  Word,  was  a 
designation  purely  and  exclusively  appropriate  to  the  Pa- 
gan mythology. 

The  Valentinians,  a  sect  of  Christian  heretics  of  the 
first  century,  approximated  so  closely  to  Paganism,  as  to 
respect  and  believe  a  regular  theogony,  holding,  according 
to  Cyrill,  that  Depth  produced  Silence,  and  upon  Silence 
begat  the  Logos.* 


CHAPTER  XXVIL 

BACCHUS JESUS    CHRIST 

"Was  the  god  of  good-cheer,  wine,  and  hilarity ;  and  as 
such,  the  poets  have  been  eloquent  in  his  praises.  On  all 
occasions  of  mirth  and  jollity,  they  constantly  invoked 
his  presence,!  and  as  constantly  thanked  him  for  the 
blessings  he  bestowed.  To  him  they  ascribed  the  greatest 
happiness  of  which  humanity  is  capable, — the  forgetful- 
ness  of  cares,  and  the  delights  of  social  intercourse.  It  has 
been  usual  for  Christians  invariably  to  represent  this 
God  as  a  sensual  encourager  of  inebriation  and  excess  ; 
and  reason  enough  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  have,  for 
giving  such  a  colouring  to  the  matter  ;  since,  only  by  so 
doing,  could  they  conceal  the  resemblance  which  an  im- 
partial observance  would  immediately  discover  between 
the  Phoenician  Yesus,|:  who  taught  mankind  the  culture 
of  the  vine,  and  so  without  a  miracle  changed  their  drink 
from  mere  water  into  wine,  "  Wwc/i  cheereth  God  and  man,^^ 
(Judges,  ix.  13),  and  the  Egyptian  Jesus,  who,  by  a 
manoeuvre  upon  half  a  dozen  water-pots,  was  believed  to 
have  persuaded  a  company  of  intoxicated  guests,  that  he 
had  turned  water  into  wine  ;  of  which  the  narrator  of  the 
story,  with  a  striking  tone  of  sarcasm,  remarks,  "  This 
beginning  of  miracles  did  Jesus  in  Cana  of  Galilee,  and 
manifested  forth  his  glory  ;  and  his  disciples  believed  on 
him,"  (John  ii.  11).  As  much  as  to  say,  that  his  dis- 
ciples only  would  be  the  advocates  of  so  egregious  an  im- 
posture.    "  i/e   manifested  forth   his  gloi'y;^^    that   is,    his 

*  Bv&og  lycwTjat  2iyt;v,  xat  ano  tj/?  ^lyrjc  trtxvonoiti  Aoyov. 

t  "  For  wdere  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name,  there  am  I  in 
the  midst  of  them." — Matt,  xviii.  20. 

I  Yesuh. — Vohiey  has  shown  that  Yes  was  one  of  the  names  of  Bacchus, 
which,  with  the  Latin  termination,  is  nothing  else  than  Yesus,  or  Jesus. 


BACCHUS.  187 

peculiar  mythological  character,  as  the  God  of  Wine, 
which  was  in  hke  manner  the  peculiar  characteristic  of 
Bacchtis. 

The  real  origin  of  the  mystical  three  letters  I  H  S,  sur- 
rounded with  rays  of  glory,  to  this  day  retained  even  in 
our  Protestant  churches,  and  falsely  supposed  to  stand  for 
Jesus  Hominum  Salvator,  is  none  other  than  the  identical 
name  of  Bacchus — Yes,  exhibited  in  Greek  letters,  rH:s. — 
See  Hesychius  on  the  word  r/i^j  i,  e.  Yes,*  Bacchus,  Sol,  the 
Sun. 

The  well-paid  apologists  of  this  and  all  other  absurdities 
that  have  obtained  their  translation  from  Pagan  into 
Christian  legends,  in  vain  endeavour  to  blink  the  ob- 
scenity betrayed  in  their  Greek  text.  This  miracle 
was  not  performed  till  all  the  witnesses  of  it  were  in  the 
last  stage  of  intoxication.  "  Every  man  at  the  beginning 
doth  set  forth  good  ivine,  and  when  men  have  well  drunk,  then 
that  ivhich  is  worse  ;  but  thou  hast  kept  the  good  wine  until  now,''^ 
is  the  remark  of  the  Architriclinus,  or  ruler  of  the  feast, 
the  only  individual,  perhaps,  except  those  who  contributed 
to  the  juggle,  who  could  speak  at  all.  "  Hast  kept  the  good 
imie  until  now ;"  that  is  to  say,  "  Till  now,  that  it  is  all 
over  with  them,  and  you  see  them  sprawling  under  the 
table,  or  scarce  knowing  whether  their  heads  or  heels  are 
uppermost."  The  original  text  supports  this  sense,  as  the 
same  will  be  found  in  the  drunken  odes  of  Anacreon  :  "  To 
arms  !  But  I  shall  drink.  Boy,  bring  me  the  goblet !  for  I 
had  rather  lie  dead  drunk,  than  dead.''^*- 

Nothing  short  of  a  debility  of  intellect  produced  by  re- 
ligious enthusiasm,  similar  to  the  sedative  effects  of 
frequently-repeated  intoxication,  could  have  hindered 
Christians  from  seeing  the  deep  and  pungent  sarcasm  on 
their  religion  involved  in  this  drunken  miracle,  which  a 
moment's  rational  reflection  would  expose.  In  any 
sense  but  that  of  an  imposition  practised  upon  men's 
senses,  the  miracle  involves  a  physical  impossibility,  and 
a  moral  contradiction.  In  no  idea  that  a  rational  mind 
can  form  of  the  power  of  God  himself,  can  we  conceive 
that  he  could  make  a  thing  to  be  and  7iot  to  6e,  and  at  the 
same  time  ;  or  so  operate  on  the  past,  as  to  cause  that  to 
have  been,  which  really  had  not  been.     That  fluid,  therefore, 

*  O/ryiC'  t?.w  Sc  TTJvcu  Ilag  ar-9{imn:og  Ttrimroy  ror  xakov  oiiov 

<t)tq'  tf.ioi  xvjiiXXov  o>  Tcai  !  ridiiat,    xai   otuv   uidvaSwai  tots  tov 

JMtdvovra  yaq  ^ic  y.eta-d^ai  (?.aao(a. 

JIoXXv  x^tiooov  T]  ^avorra. 

Anacreon. 


188  BACCHUS. 

whatever  it  was,  which  had  not  been  pressed  out  of  the 
grape, — which  had  not  been  generated,  concocted,  ma- 
tured and  exuded  through  the  secretory  ducts  of  the  vine, 
drawn  up  by  its  roots  out  of  the  earth,  circulated  through 
its  capillary  tubes,  and  effunded  into  its  fruit,  could  not  be 
wine,  nor  could  God  himself  make  it  to  be  so. 

"  That  were  to  make 
Strange  contradiction,  which  to  God  himself 
Impossible  is  held. "  Milton. 

The  more  shrewd  and  political  among  those  who  profess 
and  call  themselves  Christians,  have  avowed  themselves 
not  a  little  ashamed  of  this  miracle,  have  seen  and  recog- 
nized its  palpably  Pagan  character,  and  sighed,  and  wished 
that  it  were  peacefully  apocryphized  out  of  its  place  in  the 
sacred  volume. 

Our  only  moral  use  of  these  Christian  admissions  shall 
be  to  remind  our  readers,  for  the  advantage  of  some  fur- 
ther stage  of  our  argument,  that  we  have  here,  in  the  very 
volume  which  has  so  long  been  pretended  to  contain 
"truth  without  any  mixture  of  error,"  an  affair  not  only 
decidedly  and  unequivocally  fabulous,  but  physically  im- 
possible ;  and  this  re-edited  under  an  apparatus  of  Chris- 
tian names,  and  told  with  circumstances  of  time,  place  and 
character — stet  exempli  gratia  ! 


The  Egyptian  Bacchus  was  brought  up  at  Nysa,  and  is 
famous  as  having  been  the  conqueror  of  India.  In  Egypt 
he  was  called  Osiris,  in  India  Dionysius,  and  not  impro- 
bably Chrishna,  as  he  was  called  Adoneus,  which  signifies 
the  Lord  of  Heaven,  or  the  Lord  and  Giver  op  light,  in 
Arabia  ;  and  Liber,  throughout  the  Roman  dominions, 
from  whence  is  derived  our  term  liberal,  for  every  thing 
that  is  generous,  frank,  and  amiable. 

Though  egregiously  scandalized  by  the  moderns,  as  all 
the  Pagan  divinities  are,  where  Christians  are  the  carvers, 
he  was  far  otherwise  understood  by  the  ancients.  The 
intention  of  his  imagined  presence  at  the  festive  board 
was  to  restrain  and  prevent,  and  not  to  authorize  excess. 
His  discipline  prescribed  the  most  strict  sobriety,  and 
the  most  rational  and  guarded  temperance  in  the  use  of 
his  best  gift  to  man,  which  wisely  used,  exalts  as  mucli  our 
moral  as  it  does  our  physical  energies,  endears  man  to 
man,  gives  vigour  to  his  understanding,  life  to  his  wit, 
and  inspiration  to  his  discourse.  Bacchus  was,  in  the 
strictest  and  fairest  sense   of  the  word,  a  pure  and  holy 


BACCHUS.  189 

god  ;  he  was  deity  rendered  amiable.  He  is  called  by- 
Horace  in  general  the  modest  God,  the  decent  God.  The 
finest  moral  of  his  allegorical  existence  is,  that  he  was 
never  to  be  seen  in  company  with  Mars  ;  so  that  he  had 
juster  claims  than  any  other  to  be  designated  "  the 
Prince  of  Peace.''''  Orpheus,*  however,  directly  states  that 
Bacchus  was  a  Imogiver^  calls  him  Moses,  and  attributes  to 
him  the  two  tables  of  the  law.f  It  is  well  known,  howev- 
er, that  his  characteristic  attribute  was  immortal  boyhood  ; 
and  since  it  is  admitted  that  no  real  Bacchus  ever  existed, 
but  that  he  was  only  a  mask  or  figure  of  some  concealed 
truth,  (see  Horace's  inimitable  ode  to  this  deity,)  there  can 
be  no  danger  of  our  dropping  the  clue  of  his  allegorical 
identification,  in  winding  it  through  all  the  mazes  of  his 
vocabulary  of  names,  and  all  the  multifarious  personifica- 
tions of  the  same  primordial  idea. 

But  the  most  striking  circumstance  of  this  particular 
emblem  of  the  Sun  is,  that  in  all  the  ancient  forms  of 
invocation  to  the  Supreme  Being,  we  find  the  very 
identical  expressions  appropriated  to  the  worship  of 
Bacchus  ;  such  as,  lo  Terombe  ! — Let  us  cry  unto  the  Lord ! 
lo  !  or  lo  Baccoth  ! — -God,  see  our  tears!  Jehovah  Evan  ! 
Hevoe  !  and  Eloah  ! — Tlie  Author  of  our  existence,  the 
mighty  God!  Hu  Esh  ! — Thou  art  ,the  fire!  and  Elta 
Esh  ! —  Thou  art  the  life  !  and  lo  Nissi  ! —  O  Lord,  direct  us ! 
which  last  is  the  literal  English  of  the  Latin  motto  in  the 
arms  of  the  City  of  London  retained  to  this  day,  "  Domine 
dirig'e  nos.''^  The  Romans,  out  of  all  these  terms,  preferred 
the  name  of  Baccoth,  of  which  they  composed  Bacchus. 
The  more  delicate  ear  of  the  Greeks  was  better  pleased 
with  the  words  lo  Nissi,  out  of  which  they  formed  Dioni/- 
sius. 

That  it  was  none  other  than  the  Sun  which  the  Jews 
themselves  understood  to  be  meant,  and  actually  worship- 
ped, under  his  characteristic  epithet  of  The  Lord,  see 
"  confirmation  strong  as  proof  of  holy  writ "  in  the  Jewish 
general's  address  to  the  Sun  : — 

"  Then  spake  Joshua  to  the  Lord,  and  said,  Sun,  stand 
thou  still  upon    Gibeon !  So    the   Sun   stood   still   in   the  midst 

*  Orpheus,  who  for  the  most  part  is  followed  by.  Homer,  was  the  great  intro- 
ducer of  the  rites  of  the  heathen  worship  among  the  Greeks,  being  charged  with 
having  invented  the  very  names  of  the  gods.  He  wrote,  that  all  things  were 
made  by  One  Godhead  with  three  names,  and  that  this  God  is  all  things. — 
Hebrew  Lexicon,  347. 

t  Bacchum,  Orpheus  vocat  fioajp'  hoc  est  Moses  et  ^safio<fOQot — Legislatorem, 
et  eidem  tribuit  dinluicu  ^ta^ov  ^tOfiov  quasi  duplices  legis  tabulae. — Forney. 
Panth.  Mythicum,  p.  67. 


190  BACCHUS. 

of  heaven.  And  there  was  no  day  like  that,  before  it  or  after  it, 
that  THE  Lord  hearkened  unto  the  voice  of  a  man." — Joshua  x. 
12,  13,  14. 

The  Bacchanalia,  or  reUgious  feasts  in  honour  of 
Bacchus,  were  celebrated  with  much  solemnity,  and  with 
a  fervent  and  impassioned  piety,  among-  the  ancients, 
particularly  the  Athenians,  who,  till  the  commencement 
of  the  Olympiads,  even  computed  their  years  from  them, 
dating  all  transactions  and  events,  as  Christians  have 
since  done,  with  an  Anno  Domini,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord. 
The  Bacchanalia  are  sometimes  called  Orgies,  from  the 
transport  and  enthusiasm  with  which  they  were  cele- 
brated. The  form  and  disposition  of  the  solemnity  de- 
pended at  Athens  on  the  appointment  of  the  supreme 
magistrate,  and  was  at  first  extremely  simple  ;  btit  by 
degrees,  it  became  encumbered  with  abundance  of  cere- 
monies, and  attended  with  a  world  of  dissoluteness  and 
excess,  probably  competing  in  enormity  and  indecency 
with  a  Christian  carnival  :  so  that  the  Pagan  Romans, 
who  had  adopted  the  orgies,  were  afterwards  ashamed  of 
the  exhibition,  and  suppressed  them  throughout  Italy,  by 
a  decree  of  the  Senate. 

The  orgies  celebrated  originally  to  the  honour  of  Bac- 
chus, are  still  continued  in  honour  of  the  same  deity, 
under  another  epithet  ;  as  may  be  observed  by  any 
person  who  should  choose  to  waste  an  hour  in  attending 
the  revival  meetings  of  the  wilder  orders  of  Chrtstian 
Methodists — the  Dunkers,  Jumpers,  &c.  and  all  who  pre- 
tend to  a  more  spiritual  and  primitive  Christianity.  The 
hysterical  young  women,  sighing,  moaning, 

"  Exulting,  trembling,  raging,  fainting, 
Possessed  beyond  the  muse's  painting," 

under  the  impressions  which  our  evangelical  fanatics 
endeavour  to  produce  on  their  imaginations,  are  the  very 
antitypes  of  the  frantic  priestesses  of  Bacchus.  Nor  can 
any  man  doubt,  that  if  the  advance  of  civilization,  and 
the  improved  reason  of  mankind,  did  not  stand  in  bar  of 
such  excesses,  the  state  of  mind  called  sanctificalion,  which 
our  clergy  aim  to  render  as  general  as  they  can,  would 
continue  as  evangelized  Bacchanalia  to  this  day. 

In  the  ancient  Orphic  verses  sung  in  the  orgies  of  Bac- 
chus, as  celebrated  throughout  Egypt,  PhcBuicia,  Syria, 
Arabia,  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  atid  ultimately  in  Italy,  11 
was  related  how  that  God,  who  had  been  born  in  Arabia, 
was  picked  up  in  a  box  that  floated  on  the   water,  and 


PROMETHEUS.  191 

took  his  name  Mises,  in  signification  of  his  having  been. 
"  saved  from  the  waters,"*  and  Bimater,  from  his  having 
had  two  mothers  ;f  that  is,  one  by  nature,  and  another 
who  had  adopted  him.  He  had  a  rod  with  which  he  per- 
formed miracles,  and  whicli  he  could  change  into  a  serpent 
at  pleasure.  He  passed  the  Red  Sea  dry-shod,  at  the  head 
of  his  army.  He  divided  the  waters  of  the  rivers  Orontes 
and  Hydaspus,  by  the  touch  of  hisrod,  and  passed  through, 
them  dry-shod.  By  the  same  mighty  wand,  he  drew  water 
from  the  rock  ;  and  wherever  he  marched,  the  land  flow- 
ed with  v/ine,  milk,  and  honey." 

The  Indian  nations  were  believed  to  have  been  entirely 
involved  in  darkness  till  the  light  of  Bacchus  shone  on 
them. 

Homer  relates,  how  in  a  wrestling  match  with  Pallas, 
Bacchus  yielded  the  victory  ;:{:  and  Pausanias,  that  when 
the  Greeks  had  taken  Troy,  they  found  a  box  which  con- 
tained an  image  of  this  god,  which  Eurypilus  having  pre- 
sumptuously ventured  to  look  into,  was  immediately 
smitten  with  madness. §  Why  should  we  further  prose- 
cute this  laborious  idleness  .''  Demonstration  can  call  for 
no  more.  Every  part  of  the  Old  Testament,  from  first  to 
last,  is  Pagan :  not  so  much  as  one  single  line,  containing 
or  conveying  the  vestige  of  any  idea  or  conceit  whatever, 
find  we  in  God's  temple,  but  what  will  fit  back  again  and 
dove-tail  into  its  original  niche  in  the  walls  of  the  Pan- 
theon.— Compare  the  Chapter  on  the  State  of  the  Jews,  in 

this  DiEGESIS. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

PROMETHEUS JESUS    CHRIST. 

This  was  a  deity  who  united  the  divine  and  human 
nature  in  one  person,  and  was  confessedly  "  both  God  and 
man''' — perfect  God  and  perfect  man,  of  a  reasonable 
soul  and  human  flesh  subsisting  ;  equal  to  the  father  as 
touching  his  godhead,  but  inferior  to  the  father  as  touch- 
ing his  manhood :  who,  although  he  was  God  and  man, 
yet  was  he  not  two,  but  one  Prometheus  ;  one,  not  by 
conversion  of  the  godhead  into  flesh,  but  by  taking  the 
manhood  into  God  :  one  altogether,  not  by  confusion  of 
substance,  .but  by  unity  of  person  :  for  as  the  reasonable 

*  From  niyo  to  draw  out  or  forth. — "  Because  she  said,  inn'tyD — I  dreta  him 
out. — Exod.  ii.  10. 

t  JinriTwq — Bacchi  cognomen.        t  Iliad.  48.  §  In  Achaia. 


192  PROMETHEUS. 

soul  and  flesh  is  one  man,  so  God  and  man  is  one  Prome- 
theus :  who,  for  us  men,  and  for  our  salvation,  came  down 
from  heaven,  and  was  incarnate,  and  was  made  man,  and 
was  crucified  also  for  us,  under  force  and  strength  ;  he 
suffered,  and  descended  into  hell,  rose  again  from  l^e  dead, 
he  ascended  into  heaven,  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father,  God  Almighty." 

Thus  far  the  Pagan  and  the  Christian  credenda  ran  hand 
in  hand  together  ;  and  it  is  a  more  than  striking  coinci- 
dence, tha^  the  name  Prometheus  should  be  directly 
synonymous  with  the  Logos,  or  Word  of  God,  an  epithet 
applied  by  St.  John  to  the  God  and  'man,,  or  demi-deity  of 
the  Gospel,  from  nno,  before-hand,  and  m^o?-,  care,  or  counsel ; 
hence  directly  signifying  the  Christian  deity.  Providence, 
which  we  see  emblemized  as  an  eye  surrounded  with  rays 
of  glory,  and  casting  its  beams  of  light  upon  the  affairs  of 
our  world.  Indeed,  under  this  designation,  he  continues 
to  this  day  a  more  fashionable  deity  than  the  Logos  of 
St.  John.  We  find  acknowledgments  of  dependence  on 
Divine  Providence,  and  the  blessing  of  Providence,  or 
Prometheus,  spoken  of  in  our  British  parliament,  occur- 
ring in  his  majesty's  speeches,  and  received  with  the 
most  respectful  sentiment  from  one  end  of  the  kingdom  to 
the  other,  where  the  introduction  of  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ,  in  the  place  of  that  of  Prometheus  or  Providence, 
would  be  received  with  an  universal  smirk  of  undisguised 
contempt. 

The  best  information  of  the  character,  attributes,  and 
actions  of  this  deity,  is  to  be  derived  from  the  beautiful 
tragedy  of  nooinaivg  Jiofiwrr^?,  or  Prometheus  Bound,  of 
iEschylus,*  which  was  acted  in  the  theatre  of  Athens, 
500  years  before  the  Christian  era,  and- is  by  many  con- 
sidered to  be  the  most  ancient  dramatic  poem  now  in 
existence.  The  plot  was  derived  from  materials  even  at 
that  time  of  an  infinitely  remote  antiquity.  Nothing  was 
ever  so  exquisitely  calculated  to  work  upon  the  feelings  of 
the  spectator.  No  author  ever  displayed  '  greater  powers 
of  poetry,  with  equal  strength  of  judgment,  in  sup- 
porting through  the  piece  the  august  character  of  the 
divine  sufferer.  The  spectators  themselves  were  incon- 
sciously  made  a  party  to  the  interest  of  the  scene  :  its 
hero  was  their  friend,  their  benefactor,  their  creator,  and 
their  saviour  ;  his  wrongs  were  incurred  in  their  quarrel — • 
his  sorrows  were  endured  for  their  salvation;  "he  was 
wounded  for  their   transgressions,   and  bruised  for  their 

*  Or  Potter's  beautiful  translation  of  it,  of  which  I  here  avail  myself. 


PROMETHEUS.  193 

iniquities  ;  the  chastisement  of  their  peace  was  upon  him, 
and  by   his  stripes   they  were   healed,"  (Isaiah   Uii.  5). 
"  He  was  oppressed  and  afflicted,  yet  he  opened  not  his 
mouth."     The  majesty  of  his  silence,  whilst  the  ministers 
of  an  offended  God  were  nailing  him  by  the  hands  and 
feet  to  Mount  Caucasus,   could  be  only  equalled  by  the 
modesty  with  which  he  relates,  while   hanging  on   the 
cross,*  his  services  to  the  human  race,  which  had  brought 
on  him  that  horrible  crucifixion  : — 
"  I  will  speak, 
Not  as  upbraiding  them,  but  my  own  gifts 
Commending.     'Twas  I  who  brought  sweet  hope 
T'  inhabit  in  their  hearts — I  brought 
The  fire  of  heaven  to  animate  their  clay  : 
And  through  the  clouds  of  barbarous  ignorance 
Diffused  the  beams  of  knowledge.     In  a  word, 
Prometheus  taught  each  useful  art  to  man." 
In  answer  to  a  call  made  on  him,  to  explain  how  his 
philanthropy  could  have  incurred  such  a  terrible  punish- 
ment, he  proceeds  : — 

"  See  what,  a  god,  I  suffer  from  the  gods  ! 
For  mercy  to  mankind,  I  am  not  deemed 
Worthy  of  mercy  ;  but  in  this  uncouth 
Appointment,  am  fixed  here, 
A  spectacle  dishonourable  to  Jove  ! 
On  the  throne  of  heaven  scarce  was  he  seated, 
On  the  powers  of  heaven 
He  showered  his  various  benefits,  thereby 
Confirming  his  sovereignty  ;  but  for  unhappy  mortals 
Had  no  regard,  but  all  the  present  race 
Willed  to  extirpate,  and  to  form  anew. 
None,  save  myself,  opposed  his  will.     I  dared, 
And  boldly  pleading,  saved  them  from  destruction — 
Saved  them  from  sinking  to  the  realms  of  night ; 
For  which  offence,  I  bow  beneath  these  pains, 
Dreadful  to  suffer,  piteous  to  behold  !" 
In  the  catastrophe  of  the  plot,   his  especially  professed 
friend,  Oceanus,   the   Fisherman,   as  his  name   Petrseus 
indicates,  (PEXRiEus  was  an   interchangeable   synonyme 
of  the  name  Oceanus,)  being  unable  to  prevail  on  him  to 
make  his  peace  with  Jupiter,   by   throwing  the  cause  of 
human  redemption  out  of  his  hands,!   "  forsook  him  and 

*  The  cross  referring  to  the  attitude  of  the  sufferer,  Prometheus  may  be  called 
•OTavgcu^jvos,  or  aveaxoXoniafievog,  as  well  as  Jesus. 

t  "  Then  Peter  took  him,  and  began  to  rebuke  him,  saymg,  Bfe  it  far  from 
thee,  Lord  :  this  shall  not  be  unto  thee." — Matt.  xvi.  22. 

18 


194  PROMETHEUS. 

fled."  None  remained  to  be  witnesses  of  his  dying 
agonies,  but  the  chorus  of  ever  amiable  and  ever-faithful 
women  which  also  bewailed  and  lamented  him,  (Luke 
xxiii.  27,)  but  were  unable  to  subdue  his  inflexible  phi- 
lanthropy. Overcome  at  length,  by  the  intensity  of  his 
pains,  he  curses  Jupiter  in  language  hardly  different  in 
terms,  and  but  little  inferior  in  sublimity  to  the  '■  Eloi,  Eloi, 
lama  sabacthani  /"  of  the  Gospel.  And  immediately  the 
whole  frame  of  nature  became  convulsed  :  the  earth  shook, 
the  rocks  rent,  the  graves  were  opened  ;  and  in  a  storm 
that  seemed  to  threaten  the  dissolution  of  the  universe,  the 
curtain  fell  on  the  sublimest  scene  ever  presented  to  the 
contemplation  of  the  human  eye — a  Dving  God  !  The 
Christian  muse  has  inspired  our  modern  poets  with  no 
strains  on  this  theme,  but  such  as  bear  the  character  of 
plagiarism,  parody,  or  paraphrase  on  the  Greek  tragedy. 
A  worshipper  of  Prometheus  would  look  in  vain  through 
all  our  collections  of  sacred  poetry  for  a  single  idea  which 
his  own  forms  of  piety  had  not  suggested,  or  a  single 
phrase  whose  reference  would  not  seem  to  him,  to  have 
as  direct  an  application  to  the  god-man  of  iEschylus,  as 
to  the  Jesus  of  the  Evangelists  : 

"  Lo,  streaming  from  the  fatal  tree, 

His  all-atoning  blood  ! 
Is  this  tiie  Infinite  >  'Tis  he — 

Prometheus,  and  a  God .! 
Well  might  the  sun  in  darkness  hide, 

And  veil  his  glories  in, 
When  God,  the  great  Prometheus,  died, 

For  man,  the  creature's  sin." 
The  preternatural  darkness  which  attended  the  cruci- 
fixion of  Prometheus,  was  natural  enough  as  exhibited 
on  the  stage,  and  is  beautifully  described  in  the  language 
of  the  tragedy.  Nor  is  there  any  difficulty  in  conceiving, 
that  when  the  mighty  effect  of  so  deep  a  tragedy  on  the 
feelings  and  sentiments  of  the  audience,  became  an  inex- 
haustible source  of  wealth  to  the  performers,  there  would 
be  found  those  who  would  be  shrewd  enough  to  discover 
the  policy  of  enhancing  and  perpetuating  so  profitable  an 
impression  on  the  vulgar  mind,  by  maintaining  that  there 
was  much  more  than  a  mere  show  in  the  business  ;  that 
it  was  an  exhibition  of  circumstances  that  had  really 
happened  ;  that  Prometheus  was  a  real  personage,  and 
had  actually  done,  and  suffered,  and  spoken  as  in  so 
lively  a  manner  had  been  set  before  them  ;  that  the  tragedy 


PROMETHEUS.  195 

was  a  gospel  put  into  metre  ;  and  that  nothing  hut  "  an 
evil  heart  of  unbelief^^  could  induce  any  man  to  doubt 
"  the  certainty  of  those  things  wherein  he  had  been  instructed. ''' 
It  is  prohably  no  more  than  a  figure  of  speech,  though  cer- 
tainly very  injudiciously  chosen,  in  which  Origen  calls  the 
crucifixion  of  Christ  the  most  awful  tragedy  that  was  ever 
acted.* 

But  the  pretence  of  the  reality  of  the  event  would  break 
down^  in  the  judgment  of  the  better-informed,  from  the 
total  want  of  evidence  to  support  that  part  of  the  detail, 
which,  had  it  been  real,  could  not  have  wanted  the  elear- 
est  and  most  constraining  demonstration.  The  darkness 
which  closed  the  scene  on  the  suffering  Prometheus,  was 
easily  exhibited  on  the  stage,  by  putting  out  the  lamps  ; 
but  when  the  tragedy  was  to  become  history,  and  the 
fiction  to  be  turned  into  fact,  the  lamp  of  day  could  not 
be  so  easily  disposed  of.  Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  the 
miraculous  darkness  which  the  Evangelists  so  solemnly 
declare  to  have  attended  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  labours 
under  precisely  the  same  fatality  of  an  absolute  and  total 
want  of  evidence. 

Gibbon,  in  his  usual  strain  of  sarcasm  and  irony,  keenly 
asks,  "  How  shall  we  excuse  the  supine  inattention  of 
the  pagan  and  philosophic  world  to  those  evidences  which 
were  presented  by  the  hand  of  Omnipotence,  not  to  their 
reason,  but  to  their  senses  .''  This  miraculous  event,  which 
ought  to  have  excited  the  wonder,  the  curiosity,  and  the 
devotion  of  mankind,  passed  without  notice  in  an  age  of 
science  and  history.  It  happened  during  the  lifetime  of 
Seneca  and  the  elder  Pliny,  who  must  have  experienced 
the  immediate  effects,  or  received  the  earliest  intelligence 
of  the  prodigy.  Each  of  these  philosophers,  in  a  laborious 
work,  has  recorded  all  the  gi-eat  phaenomena  of  nature — 
earthquakes,  meteors,  comets,  and  eclipses,  which  his 
indefatigable  curiosity  could  collect  ;  both  the  one  and  the 
other  have  omitted  to  mention  the  greatest  phcenomenon 
to  which  the  mortal  eye  has  been  witness  since  the  crea- 
tion of  the  globe."— (?i66on,  vol.  2,  ch.  15,  p.  379. 

This  objection  of  Gibbon  is  answered  by  Bishop  Wat- 

*  His  answer  to  Celsus,  chapter  27.  What  other  than  this  is  the  sense  of  those 
words  of  the  apostolic  chief  of  sinners,  "  O  foolish  Galatians,  who  hath  be- 
witched  you,  that  ye  should  not  obey  the  truth,  before  ivhose  eyes  Jesus  Christ 
hath  been  evidently  set  forth  crucified  among  you  ?''' — Gal.  iii.  1.  Surely,  it 
was  not  in  the  country  of  the  Galatians  that  Christ  was  crucified  ;  nor  could  he 
have  been  set  forth  before  their  eyes,  and  evidently,  otherwise  than  by  a  picture, 
or  in  a  theatrical  representation  ! 


196  PROMETHEUS. 

son,  in  a  double-entendre  paragraph,  which  opens  with  the 
curious  word  to  the  wise^  that  "  tho\igh  he  was  aware  he 
was  hable  to  be  misunderstood  in  what  he  was  going  to 
say,  yet  Mr.  Gibbon  would  not  misunderstand  him."  Then 
follows  the  most  extraordinary  declaration  of  his  own, 
(a  bishop's)  faith,  "  that  however  mysterious  the  dark- 
ness at  the  crucifixion  might  have  beeii,  he  had  no  doubt 
the  power  of  God  was  as  much  concerned  in  its  production, 
as  it  was  in  the  opening  of  the  graves,  and  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead  bodies  of  the  saints  that  slept,  which  accom- 
panied that  darkness." — Third  Letter  to  Gibbon^  last  para- 
graph. Another  way  of  saying,  that  every  sensible  man 
must  perceive  that  one  part  of  the  story  was  just  as  pro- 
bable as  the  other,  or  that  it  was  a  romance  altogether. 
The  good  Bishop  ventured  to  trust  his  security  to  the 
well-proved  truth  of  the  adage,  "  None  are  so  blind  as 
those  who  will  not  see." 

The  immoral  and  mischievous  tendency  of  the  doctrine 
of  atonement  for  sin,  so  acceptable  to  guilty  minds,  and  so 
eagerly  embraced  by  the  greatest  monsters  of  iniquity,  had 
been  preached  by  self-interested  priests,  and  reprobated 
by  all  who  wished  well  to  mankind,  long  before  that  doc- 
trine was  deduced  from  the  Christian  Scriptures,  long  be- 
fore those  Scriptures  are  pretended  to  have  been  written. 

Before  the  period  assigned  to  the  birth  of  Christ,  the 
poet  Ovid  had  assailed  the  demoraHzing  delusion  with  the 
most  powerful  shafts  of  philosophic  scorn  :       ^ 

"  Cum  sis  ipse  nocens,  moritur  cur  victima  pro  te  ? 
Stultitia  est  morte  alterius  sperare  salutem." 

"  When  thou  thyself  art  guilty,  why  should  a  victim  die  for 
thee  ?  What  Jolly  it  is  to  expect  salvation  from  the  death  of 
another.'''' 

No  particle  of  difficulty  remains,  then,  in  accounting  for 
the  fact,  that  in  that  portion  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  in 
which  the  miraculous  style  is  discontinued,  and  we  so 
clearly  trace  the  probable  and  most  likely  real  adventures 
or  journal  of  a  missionary  sent  out  from  the  college  of  the 
Egyptian  Therapeuts  joined  on  as  an  appendix  to  some 
fragment  of  their  sacred  legends  which  detailed  the  mys- 
tical adventures  of  the  supposed  first  founders  of  their 
order,  whose  example  the  missionary  was  to  have  con- 
tinually before   him,* — we   should  read,  that   when  the 

*  This  appendix  commences  in  the  13th  chapter,  where  we  find  Saul  in  the 
mission  at  Antioch,  and  preaching  again,  one  of  the  sermons  which  had  been 
before  ascribed  to  Peter. 


PROMETHEUS.  197 

apostolic  Therapeut  attempted  to  preach  his  doctrine  of 
'■'■  Jesus  Cknst  and  him  crucified^''''  at  Athens,  he  found  that 
the  Athenians  were  already  in  possession  of  all  he  had  to 
communicate,  and  that  what  he  was  endeavouring  to  set 
off  as  a  doctrine  newly  revealed,  was  with  them  a  very  old 
story.  He  brought  to  their  ears  "no  new  thing."*  The 
Epicurean  and  Stoical  philosophers  were  more  at  home 
than  himself  upon  that  subject,  and  called  him  "a  babbler,^^ 
the  very  term  that  most  expressively  designates  the  cha- 
racter of  a  doting  ignoramus,  who,  in  the  arrogance  of  his 
own  conceit,  will  be  for  ever  foisting  up  old  stories  of  a 
hundred  thousand  years  standing,  and  swearing  that  they 
had  occurred  in  his  own  experience,  and  had  happened  to 
nobody  else  but  some  particular  acquaintances  of  his. 

The  majority,  however,  carried  the  vote  that  he  should 
have  a  fair  hearing,  and  Paul  was  allowed  to  preach  in  the 
Areopagus.  The  previous  rebuke  he  had  received  had 
completely  subdued  his  impertinence  ;  he  no  more  pre- 
sumed to  lay  claim  to  originality  in  the  crucifying  story. 
He  preached  pure  Deism,  quoted  their  own  poets,  and 
ventured  not  once  so  much  as  to  name  his  Jesus,  or  to 
make  an  allusion  that  could  be  construed  as  referring  to 
him  rather  than  to  any  other  of  the  god-men  or  man-gods 
who  had  risen  from  the  dead  as  well  as  he.  (Acts  xvii). 

Prometheus,  exactly  answering  to  the  Christian  per- 
sonification Providence,  is,  like  that  personification,  used 
sometimes  as  an  epithet  synonymous  with  the  Supreme 
Deity  himself.  The  Pagan  phrase,  "  Thank  Prometheus,'''' 
like  the  Christian  one,  "  Thank  Providence,''''  its  literal 
interpretation,  meant  exactly  the  same  as  "  Thank  Godf^ 
Thus  in  The  Orphic  Hymn  to  Chronus  or  Saturn,t  we 
have  this  sublime  address  to  the  Supreme  Deity  under 
his  name  Prometheus,  "Illustrious,  cherishing  Father,  both 
of  the  immortal  gods  and  of  men,  various  of  counsel, |  spot- 

*  Acts  xvii.  18. 

t  See  the  original  in  Eschenbachius's  edit.  p.  110.  Compare  also  my  learned  and 
amiable  friend's  edition  m  original  Greek  inscription  types,  cast  at  his  own  expense. 
,  t  The  three  similar  epithets,  "  Various  of  Counsel,"  "  Various  in  design," 
"  Tortuous  in  counsel,"  would  justify  the  doctriae,  that  the  whole  Trinity  was 
comprehended  in  this  "  Prometheus  the  power  of  God,  and  Prometheus  the 
wisdom  of  God."  (1  Cor.  i.  24.)  "  His  name  shall  be  called.  Wonderful 
Counsellor,  the  mighty  God."  (Isa.  ix.  6.)  Lactantius  admits,  that  though 
what  the  poets  delivered  concerning  the  creation  of  man  was  corrupted,  it  was  not 
different  in  effect  from  the  truth  as  held  by  Christians  ;  for  in  that  they  liave 
asserted  that  man  was  created  out  of  clay  by  Prometheus,  they  were  not 
wrong  as  to  the  fact,  but  only  as  to  the  name  of  the  Creator. — Lactant.  Instit. 
lib.  ii.  c.  lO.—ICortholto  Pagano  Obtrectatore,  Citante  p  34. 
18* 


198  THE    SIGN    OF    THE    CROSS. 

less,  powerful,  mig-hty  Titan,  who  consumest  all  things, 
and  again  thyself  repairest  them,  who  holdestthe  ineffable 
bands  throug-hout  the  boundless  world  ;  thou  universal  pa- 
rent of  successive  being,  various  in  design,  fructifier  of  the 
earth  and  of  the  starry  heaven,  dread  Prometheus,  who 
dwellcst  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  author  of  generation, 
tortuous  in  counsel,  most  excellent,  hear  our  suppliant 
voice,  and  send  of  our  life  ahappy  blameless  end."  Amen  ! 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

THE    SIGN    OF    THE    CROSS. 

The  NILE  was  worshipped  as  a  god  by  the  inhabitants 
of  the  countries  fertilized  by  its  inundations,  before  all 
records  of  human  opinions  or  actions.  Plato,  who  flourished 
348  years  before  the  Christian  era,  records,  that  the  Egyp- 
tian priests  had  pointed  out  to  him  on  their  pyramids  the 
symbolical  hieroglyphics  of  a  religion  which  had  existed  in 
uninterrupted  orthodoxy  among  them  for  upwards  of  ten 
thousand  years.  Nor  has  the  progress  of  Christianity  or 
civilization,  even  at  this  day,  entirely  abolished  the  reli- 
gious honours  paid  to  this  king  of  streams.  The  priests 
called  the  Cophtes  still  think  that  they  "  sanctify  its 
waters  to  the  mystical  washing  away  of  sin,"  by  throwing 
into  it  some  beads  or  some  bits  of  a  cross  ;  as  in  our  own 
baptismal  service  in  the  church  of  England  at  this  day, 
the  priest  spreads  his  hand  over  the  font,  and  uses  the 
words,  "  Sanctify  this  water  to  the  mystical  washing 
away  of  sin  ;  "  and  then  sprinkling  the  water  so  sanctified 
in  the  child's  face,  and  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  upon 
its  forehead,  he  adds,  "  We  do  sign  him  with  the  sign  of 
the  cross,"  &c. 


THE    SIGN    OP    THE    CROSS    ENTIRELY    PAGAN. 

The  holy  father  Minucius  Felix,  in  his  Octavius,  written 
as  early  as  the  year  211,  indignantly  resents  the  supposi- 
tion that  the  sign  of  the  cross  should  be  considered  as  ex- 
clusively a  Christian  symbol  ;  and  represents  his  advocate 
of  the  Christian  argument,  as  retorting  on  an  infidel  oppo- 
nent, "  As  for  the  adoration  of  crosses,  which  you  object 
against  us,  I  must  tell  you,  that  we  neither  adore  crosses 


THE    SIGN    OF    THE    CROSS.  199 

nor  desire  them  ;  you  it  is,  ye  Pagans,  who  worship 
wooden  gods,  who  are  the  most  Hkely  people  to  adore 
wooden  crosses,  as  being,  parts  of  the  same  substance 
with  your  deities.  For  what  else  are  your  ensigns,  flags, 
and  standards,  but  crosses  gilt  and  beautified.  Your 
victorious  trophies  not  only  represent  a  simple  cross,  but 
a  cross  with  a  man  upon  it.  The  sign  of  a  cross  naturally 
appears  in  a  ship,  either  when  she  is  under  sail,  or  rowed 
with  expanded  oars  like  the  palm  of  our  hands.  Not  a 
jugum  erected  but  exhibits  the  sign  of  a  cross  ;  and  when 
a'  pure  worshipper  adores  the  true  God,  with  hands  ex- 
tended, he  makes  the  same  figure.  Thus  you  see  that  the 
sign  of  the  cross  has  either  some  foundation  in  nature,  or 
in  your  own  religion,  and  therefore  ought  not  to  be  object- 
ed against  Christians."* 

Meagher,  a  Popish  priest,  who  came  over  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  communion,  and  attached  himself  (for 
what  reasons,  or  with  what  motives,  must  rest  with  him- 
self alone)  to  the  ministry  of  the  church  of  England,  fur- 
nishes us  with  the  most  satisfactory  prototype  of  what  he 
had  come  at  last  to  consider  as  a  corrupt  Christianity,  in 
the  idolatrous  worship  of  the  Nile.  The  ignorant  grati- 
tude of  a  superstitious  people,  while  they  adored  the  river 
on  whose  inundations  the  fertility  of  their  provinces  de- 
pended, could  not  fail  of  attaching  notions  of  sanctity 
and  holiness  to  the  posts  that  were  erected  along  its 
course,  and  which,  by  a  transverse  bearn^  indicated  the  height 
to  which,  at  the  spot  where  the  beam  was  fixed,  the  waters 
might  be  expected  to  rise.  This  cross  at  once  warned  the 
traveller  to  secure  his  safety,  and  formed  a  standard  of 
the  value  of  the  land.  Other  rivers  may  add  to  the  fertility 
of  the  country  through  which  they  pass,  but  the  Nile  is  the 
absolute  cause  of  that  great  fertility  of  the  Lower  Egypt, 
which  would  be  all  a  desert,  as  bad  as  the  most  sandy 
parts  of  Africa,  without  this  river.  It  supplies  it  both 
with  soil  and  moisture,  and  was  therefore  gratefully  ad- 
dressed, not  merely  as  an  ordinary  river -god,  but  by  its 
express  title  of  the  Egyptian  Jupiter.  The  crosses,  there- 
fore, along  the  banks  of  the  river,  would  naturally  share 
in  the  honours  of  the  stream,  and  be  the  most  expressive 
emblem  of  good  fortune,  peace,  and  plenty.  The  two 
ideas  could  never  be  separated  :    the  fertilizing  flood  was 

*  Reeves's  Apologies  of  the  FatheVs,  &c.  vol.  1,  p.  139.  This  Reverend  Mr. 
Reeves  is  unquestionable  authority  for  the  text  of  the  orthodox  Fathers  ;  in  which 
he  could  not  be  wrong.  We  may  be  allowed  however  to  question  his  authority, 
where  he  would  persuade  us  that,  all  the  heretics  ate  children. 


200  THE    SIGN    OP    THE    CROSS. 

the  waters  of  life,  that  conveyed  every  blessing,  and  even 
existence  itself,  to  the  provinces  through  which  they 
flowed. 

One  other  and  most  obvious  hieroglyph  completed  the 
expressive  allegory  :  The  Demon  of  Famine,  who,  should 
the  waters  fail  of  their  inundation,  or  not  reach  the  eleva- 
tion indicated  by  the  position  of  the  transverse  beam 
upon  the  upright,  would  reign  in  all  his  horrors  over  their 
desolated  lands.  This  symbolical  personification  was, 
therefore,  represented  as  a  miserable  emaciated  wretch, 
who  had  grown  up  "  as  a  tender  plant,  and  as  a  root  out 
of  a  dry  ground,  who  had  no  form  nor  comeliness  ;  and 
when  they  should  see  him,  there  was  no  beauty  that  they 
should  desire  him."  Meagre  were  his  looks  ;  sharp  misery 
had  worn  him  to  the  bone.  His  crown  of' thorns  indicated 
the  sterility  of  the  territories  over  which  he  reigned.  The 
reed  in  his  hand,  gathered  from  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  indi- 
cated, that  it  was  only  the  mighty  river,  by  keeping  within 
its  banks,  and  thus  withholding  its  wonted  munificence, 
that  placed  an  unreal  sceptre  in  his  gripe.  He  was  nailed 
to  the  cross,  in  indication  of  his  entire  defeat ;  and  the 
superscription  of  his  infamous  title,  "  This  is  the  king  of 
THE  Jews,"  expressively  indicated,  that  Famine,  Want,  or 
Poverty,  ruled  the  destinies  of  the  most  slavish,  beggarly, 
and  mean-spirited  race  of  men  with  whom  they  had  the 
honour  of  being  acquainted. 

Madame  Dacier,  in  her  edition  of  Plato,  quotes  author- 
ities in  proof  that,  when  Plato  visited  Egypt,  the  priests 
showed  him  the  symbols  of  a  religion  which,  they  alleged, 
had  continued  in  observance  among  their  ancestors  for 
upwards  of  ten  thousand  years. 

From  the  way  in  which  it  was  apparent  to  M.  Dupuis, 
that  the  mythologies  and  astronomical  allegories  of  the 
ancients  were  connected  with  the  periodical  return  of  the 
seasons,  he  was  induced  to  suppose  that  they  must  have 
originated  in  Egypt,  where  the  annual  inundation  or 
deluge  was  marked  in  so  peculiar  a  manner  ;  and  all 
ecclesiastical  indications,  it  must  be  admitted,  point  to 
Egypt,  as  the  birth-place  and  cradle  of  Religion.  But  it 
has  happened  not  to  occur  to  the  reflections  of  M.  Dupuis, 
nor  to  ecclesiastical  writers,  that  with  the  variation  of  a 
few  weeks  only,  the  Ganges  and  the  Indus  produce  pre- 
cisely similar  phenomena  to  those  of  the  Nile.  And  it  is 
in  a  very  peculiar  manner  worthy  of  consideration,  that 
a  colony  from  India  arriving  in  Egypt,  so  far  from  finding 


THE    SIGN    OF    THE    CROSS.  201 

their  country's  superstition  discouraged  by  dissimilarity 
of  circumstances,  would  find  every  circumstance  of  season 
and  climate  favourable  to  it,  tending-  to  recall  the  same 
associations  of  idea,  and  to  sanctify  the  same  absurdities 
of  practice. 

The  most  learned  antiquaries  agree  in  holding  it  un- 
questionable that  Egypt  was  •  colonized  from  India.  It 
received  one  of  the  earliest  swarms  of  emigrants  from  the 
Bactrian  hive.  And  thus,  even  if  we  had  not  the  proof 
we  have  yet  to  adduce,  of  the  actual  importation  by  the 
monks  of  Alexandria,  would  the  superstitions  of  India 
get  footing  in  Egypt  ;  the  Chrishna  of  the  Ganges  would 
become  the  Christ  of  the  Nile  ;  and  the  priests  be  left  to 
no  better  expedient  to  disguise  the  real  origin  of  their 
allegorical  figment,  than  by  tran^orting  him  again  to  the 
banks  of  the  Jordan.  The  first  draft  of  the  mystical 
adventures  of  Chrishna,  as  brought  from  India  into  Egypt, 
was  The  Diegesis  ;  the  first  version  of  the  Diegesis  was 
the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians  ;  the  first  ren- 
derings out  of  the  language  of  Egypt  into  that  of  Greece, 
for  the  purpose  of  imposing  on  the  nations  of  Europe, 
were  the  apocryphal  gospels  ;  the  corrected,  castigated,  and 
authorised  versions  of  these  apocryphal  compilations  were 
the  gospels  of  our  four  evangelists. 

It  should  never  be  forgotten,  that  the  sign  of  the  cross,  for 
ages  anterior  to  the  Augustan  era,  was  in  common  use 
among  the  Gentiles.  It  was  the  most  sacred  symbol  of 
Egyptian  idolatry.  It  is  on  most  of  the  Egyptian  obe- 
Hsks,  and  was  believed  to  possess  all  the  devil-expelling 
virtues  which  have  since  been  ascribed  to  it  by  Christians. 
The  monogram,  or  symbol  of  the  god  Saturn,  was  the  sign 
of  the  cross,  together  with  a  ram's  horn,  in  indication  of 
the  Lamb  of  God.  Jupiter  also  bore  a  cross  with  a  horn, 
Venus  a  cross  with  a  circle.  The  famous  Crux  ansata  is  to 
be  seen  in  all  the  buildings  of  Egypt  ;  and  the  most  cele- 
brated temples  of  the  idol  Chrishna  in  India,  like  our 
Gothic  cathedrals,  were  built  in  the  form  of  crosses. 

The  sign  of  the  cross  is  the  very  mark  which  in  Ezekiel, 
ix.  4,  the  Lord  commands  his  messenger  to  "  g-o  through 
the  midst  of  Jerusalem,  and  set  upon  the  foreheads  of  the  men 
that  sigh,  and  that  cry  for  all  the  abominations  that  be  done  in 
the  midst  thereof''  But  here,  as  in  a  thousand  other 
places,  our  English  rendering  protestantizes,  for  the  purpose 
of  disguising  the  papistical  sense,  just  as  their  immediate 
predecessors,   the   paptists,  had  set  them  the  example  of 


202  THE    SIGN    OF    THE    CROSS. 

christianizing  whatever  came  in  their  way,  for  the  purpose 
of  concealing  the  Pagan  origination. 

On  a  Phoenician  medal  found  in  the  ruins  of  Citium, 
and  engraved  in  Dr.  Clarke's  Travels,  and  proved  by  him 
to  be  Phoenician,  are  inscribed  not  only  the  cross,  but  the 
rosary,  or  string  of  beads,  attached  to  it,  together  with 
the  identical  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world. 

"  How  it  came  to  pass,"  says  the  pious  Mr.  Skelton,  "  that 
the  Egyptians,  Arabians,  and  Indians,  before  Christ  came 
among  us,  paid  a  remarkable  veneration  to  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  is  to  me  unknown  ;  but  the  fact  itself  is  known.  In 
some  places  this  sign  was  given  to  men  who  had  been  ac- 
cused of  crime,  but  acquitted  upon  trial  ;  and  in  Egypt  it 
stood  for  the  signification  of  eternal  life.''''*  0  Christian 
revelation,  what  is  it  that  thou  hast  revealed  ? 


THE    CHRISTIANS,    WORSHIPPERS    OF    THE    GOD    SERAPIS. 

But  it  is  more  than  evidence  of  this  character  that 
summons  our  admiration  in  the  charge  of  Serapidolatry., 
or  the  worship  of  the  god  Serapis,  which  was 
brought  against  the  primitive  Christians,  by  no  vulgar 
accuser,  no  bigotted  intolerant  reviler,  but  by  that  philo- 
sophic and  truth-respecting  witness,  the  emperor  Adrian. f 
In  a  certain  letter  which  he  writes,  while  in  the  course  of 
his  travels,  to  the  Consul  Servianus,  he  states,  that  he 
found  the  worshippers  of  the  god  Serapis  in  that  country 
distinguished  by  the  name  of  Christians.  "  Those,"  he 
says,  "who  worship  Serapis,  are  Christians  ;  and  those 
who  are  especially  consecrated  to  Serapis,  call  themselves 
the  bishops  of  Christ."  In  reUef  of  which  charge,  the 
learned  Kortholt,  from  whose  valuable  work,  the  Paganus 
Obtrectator,  I  have  taken  this  passage,  pleads,  and  in- 
deed it  might  be  so,  that  when  this  emperor  was  in  Egypt, 
some  of  the  Christians,  actuated  by  fear,  concealing  their 
true  religion  for  a  season,  might  have  held  out  an  appear- 
ance of  having  embraced  the  superstition  of  the  Pagans. 
Thus  in  the  Ancient  Martyrology,  in  the   history  of  Epi- 

*  Skelton's  Appeal  to  Common  Sense,  p.  45. 

t  In  Lpistola  quadam  ad  Servianum  cos.  Imperator  Hadranus  prodidit,  coluisse 
ipsos  in  /Egypto  Serapidem,  sive  numen  illud  /Egyptiorum  pritcipuum,  quod  sub 
bovis  specie  eos  fuisse  venerates,  nemo  ignorat.  Tlli  ait  qui  Serapin  colunt, 
Christiani  sunt,  et  devoti  sunt  Sernpi,  qui  se  Christi  Episcopos  dicunt. 
— Korthnlti  Pagan.  Obtrect.  de  Serapidol atria,  lib.  2,  c.  5,  p.  324. — See  this 
article  at  length  in  the  chapter  that  adduces  the  testimony  of  the  emperor  Adrian. 


THE    SIGN    OF    THE    CROSS.  203 

charmus,  an  Eg-yptian  martyr,  it  is  related  that  all  the 
Christians  in  Alexandria,  upon  the  coming-  of  a  cruel 
judge,  either  fled  away,  or  pretended  to  be  still  followers 
of  the  Pagan  impiety  :  and  if  the  approach  of  a  judge  only 
could  produce  this  etTect,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  coming  of 
the  emperor  himself,  and  he,  as  they  all  knew,  being  a  most 
strenuous  asserter  of  the  Gentile  superstitions,  should 
have  a  similar  effect*.  In  Socrates's  History  of  Constan- 
tine,  he  relates  how  that  most  holy  emperor  went  about  to 
promote  the  Christian  religion,  and  to  banish  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  of  the  Ethnics,  he  set  up  his  own  image  in  their 
idolatrical  temples  :  and  finding  that  there  prevailed  a 
general  belief  of  the  people  of  Egypt  that  it  was  the  god 
Serapis  who  caused  the  river  Nile  to  overflow  and  fer- 
tilize their  country,  in  honour  of  which,  a  certain  ell  (the 
upright  post  with  the  transverse  beam  which  had  been 
used  to  measure  the  height  and  extent  of  the  inundation) 
was  annually  brought  with  religious  ceremonies  into  the 
temple  of  the  god  Serapis,  the  emperor  commanded  that 
ell  to  be  brought  into  the  church  of  Alexandria.  Upon 
this  profanation,  the  Egyptian  people  had  wrought  them- 
selves up  to  the  too-critical  beUef,  that  the  Nile  would 
resent  the  indignity,  and  no  more  condescend  to  overflow 
his  banks  as  usual  ;  thereby  subjecting  themselves  to  a 
sort  of  miracle,  which  was  pretty  safely  promised  them 
beforehand  ;  for,  behold  !  on  the  following  year  the  river 
did  not  only  overflow  after  his  wonted  manner,  arid  from 
that  time  forth  keep  his  course,  (0  most  miraculous  of  all 
miracles  !)  but  also  did  thereby  declare  unto  the  world 
that  Nilus  was  accustomed  to  overflow,  not  after  their  su- 
perstitious opinion,  but  by  the  secret  determination  of 
Divine  Providence. f 

Notwithstanding,  however,  this  adoption  of  the  Pagan 
symbol  of  the  cross  into  the  Christian  church,  and  the 
rapid  propagation  of  Christianity,  it  was  not  till  after  the 
commencement  of  the  fifth  century,  when  the  emperor 
Theodosius  had  given  the  exterminatory  business,  by  com- 
mission, into  the  hands  of  Theophilus  bishop  of  Alex- 
andria, that  it  was  completed  with  something  like  epis- 
copal vigour.  "  By  the  procurement  and  industry  of 
Theophilus  the  bishop,  the  emperor  commanded  that  all 
the  idol  groves  of  the  Ethnics  within  Alexandria  should 
down  to  the  ground,  and  that  Theophilus  should  oversee 

*  Kortholt  in  codem  loco.  t  Socrates  Schol.  lib.  1,  c.  14. 


204  THE    SIGN    OP    THE    CROSS. 

it.  Theophilus,  being  thus  authorized,  omitted  nothing 
that  might  tend  to  the  reproach  and  contumely  of  hea- 
thenish ceremonies  :  down  goes  the  temple  of  Mithra, 
with  all  its  idolatrical  filth  and  superstition  :  down  goes  the 
god  Serapis  ;  their  embrued  and  bloody  mysteries  are  pub- 
licly derided  ;  their  vain  and  ridiculous  practices  are  pub- 
licly ridiculed  in  the  open  market-place,  to  their  utter  shame 
and  ignominy."*  I  need  not  continue  this  hideous  pas- 
sage through  the  description  which  follows,  and  was  sure 
to  follow,  of  the  sanguinary  horrors  in  which  it  issued. 

To  deny  that  Christianity  was  and  hath  been  the  reli- 
gion of  the  sword  from  first  to  last,  and  hath  been  propa- 
gated and  sustained  by  means  of  violence  and  fraud,  and 
by  no  other  means,  or  to  assert  that  there  ever  was  on 
earth,  or  could  have  been  any  other  religion  that  ever 
made  its  professors  of  all  sorts  and  in  all  ages,  one  half  so 
savage,  so  bloody,  and  so  wicked,  is,  as  it  were,  to  assert 
any  thing,  to  trample  all  evidence  of  fact  and  history 
under  foot,  to  deny  the  existence  of  the  sun,  to  deny  that 
the  jury  who  convicted  the  Rev.  Robert  Taylor  of  blas- 
pheming their  Lord  Jesus  Christ  "  BY  force  and  arms," 
were  a  perjured  jury,  to  deny  that  there  is  any  gaol  at 
Oakham,  any  innocent  man  in  that  gaol,  or  truth  in  truth 
itself. 

THE    SIGN    OF    THE    CROSS    FOUND    IN    THE    TEMPLE    OF 
SERAPIS. 

"  In  the  temple  of  Serapis,  now  overthrown  and  rifled 
throughout,  there  were  found  engraven  in  the  stones  cer- 
tain letters  which  they  call  hieroglyphical  ;  the  manner  of 
their  engraving  resembled  the  form  of  the  cross.  The 
which,  when  both  Christians  and  Ethnics  beheld  before 
them,  every  one  applied  them  to  his  proper  religion.  The 
Christians  affirmed  that  the  cross  was  a  sign  or  token  of 
the  passion  of  Christ,  and  the  proper  symbol  of  their  pro- 
fession. The  Ethnics  avouched  that  therein  was  con- 
tained something  in  common,  belonging  as  well  to  Serapis 
as  to  Christ  ;  and  that  the  sign  of  the  cross  signified  one 
thing  unto  the  Ethnics,  and  another  to  the  Christians. — 
While  they  contended  thus  about  the  meaning  of  these 
hieroglyphical  letters,!  many  of  the  Ethnics  became  Chris- 

*  Socrates  Schol.  lib.  5,  c.  16.  t  ivt  t>  t 

t  We  see  at  this  day,  without  any  countenance  of  Scripture,  the  letters  I.N.R.I 

engraved  in  all  our  idolatneal   representations  of  the   crucifixion.     It   is   obvious 

that  they  would  bear  any  other  reading  as  well  as  that  which  Christian  conceit  may 

give  then). 


THE    SIGN    OP    THE    CROSS.  205 

tians,  for  they  perceived  at  length  the  sense  and  meaning 
of  those  letters,  and  that  they  prognosticated  salvation, 

and  LIFE    TO    COME."* 

This  most  important  evidence  of  the  utter  indifference 
between  Christianity  and  any,  even  the  grossest  forms  of 
the  ancient  Paganism,  is  supplied  by  a  Christian  historian  ; 
and  independent  of  its  fairness,  as  taken  from  such  a 
source,  and  its  inherent  versimilitude,  is  corroborated  by 
a  parallel  passage  from  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  Sozo- 
menes,  who,  about  the  year  443,  wrote  the  history  of  the 
church  from  the  reign  of  Constantine  the  Great  to  that  of 
the  younger  Theodosius.  He  is  speaking  of  the  temple  of 
the  god  Serapisf — "  It  is  reported  that  when  this  temple 
was  destroyed,  there  appeared  some  of  those  characters 
called  hieroglyphics,  surrounding  the  sign  of  the  cross,  in 
engraven  stones  ;  and  that,  by  the  skilful  in  these  matters, 
these  hieroglyphics  were  held  to  have  signified  this  inscrip- 
tion— THE  LIFE  TO  COME  !  And  this  became  a  pretence 
for  becoming  Christians  to  many  of  the  Grecians,  because 
there  were  even  other  letters  which  signified  this  sacred 
end  when  this  character  appeared." 

Thus  in  every  genuine  historical  document,  we  are  con- 
tinually met  by  evidence  of  the  superfluous  prodigality  of 
miracles,  and  that  offence  against  the  laws  of  the  drama, 
as  well  as  of  historical  probability,  which  makes  a  god  ap- 
pear where  there  was  no  knot  worthy  of  a  god.  The  Pa- 
gans, so  far  from  needing  miracles  to  convert  them,  were 
at  all  times  ready  to  embrace  any  new  faith  whatever  :  no 
trick  could  be  too  gross  to  fail  of  success  on  their  easy  cre- 
dulity. They  really  had  not  the  capacity  of  inflicting 
martyrdom  :  they  were  ready  to  be  winked  and  whistled 
into  Christianity. — Socrates  continues  his  account : 

*  Ev  St  T(o  veto)  xov  SsqaTCiSog  Xvojutvov,  xat  yvfivovusvov,  ijvqriro  yqaiifiara  tyxt- 
jfaqayfieva  roi?  Xt&oig,  tcu  xaXov^eva  siqoyXv(pixta.  Haav  St  oi  ^oiQay.Trjqtg  oraXQtor 
tj(ovrtg  rvnovg,  Tovrovg  oqiavrig  XQiartavoi  Tt  xai  E?.Xt]veg,  t>;  tSia,  txareqai 
^QTjgxiia  TiQoaijqfioLovTo  Xqiariavoi  ^itv  yaq  arifieiov  rov  xara  Xqiotov  otuTr^Qiv)3ovg 
na^ovg  tirai  XeyovTig  rov  aravQor,  oixtiov  nvat  rov  j(aQaxrriQa  croutilov.  EXXyjvtg 
6»  Tt  xoivov  Xqtoruj  xai  Ssqani  dieXtvov,  ti  o  aravQoti3tjg  xccQaxrtjQ,  aXXo  uty 
^lariavotg,  aXXo  Se  EXXijOl  nouirai  to  avfi^oXov.  Tovriav  St  c^(^(ff(?»/TJV/ttva)v, 
Tivtg,  Ttov  EXXrjvwv  TO)  XQiariaviCfiu)  nQoaeX-^ovrec,  ra  icQoyXvtpixa  re  yoafifiara 
tTtiora^tvoi,  dieQftTjvivovrcg  rov  aravQaciSt]  ;^ay«xT>;5«.  EXeyov  atjfiaivsiv  tojTjy 
EntQxofiivrjv. — Socrat.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  5,  c.  17. 

t  <t>aai  Se  rov  taov  xa&atoov^ievov  rovrov,  rtra  Tuiv  xaXovutvon'  j^aqaxrriQoiv, 
aravQci  arjfitiai  eficptQcig,  eyxsj^anay^itvot?  roig  Xi-9oig  avatparrivai.  TTuq  iniori]^iovmr 
8t  Tot  roiahs  tQi^ijvev&eiaav  aur^avai  ravri]v  rtivyqatpriv  ZS2HN  EIIEFXOMENHN 
rovro  3t  nqo(faOiv  XqiartaviOfiov  noXXoig  ytvta-d'ai  ruiv  cXXrjvtaruv ;  xa&on  xa% 
yQo^/uara  trtqa  rovro  to  tiqov  Ttilo$  t^toriv  t8r\Xov,  ijvjxa  ovxog  o  /a§aATijg  c/iavij. 
— ^Lib.  2,  cap.  15. 

19 


206  THE    SIGISr    OF    THE    CROSS. 

"The  Christians  perceiving'  that  this  made  very  much 
for  their  religion,  made  g-reat  accomit  thereof,  and  were 
not  a  little  proud  of  it.  When  as  by  other  hieroglyphical 
letters  it  was  gathered,  that  the  temple  of  Serapis  should 
go  to  ruin  when  the  sign  of  the  cross  therein  engraven 
came  to  light  (by  that  life  to  come  was  foreshewed), 
many  more  embraced  the  Christian  religion,  confessed 
their  sins,  and  were  baptized.  Thus  much  have  I  learned 
of  the  cross."* — And  thus  far  quote  I  from  the  Ecclesias- 
tical History  of  Socrates,  a  Christian  historian,  who  lived 
and  wrote  about  a.  n.  412,  the  contemporary  of  Damasus 
bishop  of  Rome,  of  Chrysostom  of  Constantinople,  and  of 
the  events  which  he  has  here  recorded.  Though  the  god 
Serapis  stood  in  so  immediate  a  relation  to  the  Nile,  his 
worship  was  by  no  means  confined  to  Egypt  ;  he  was  wor- 
shipped not  only  in  Egypt  and  in  Greece,  but  also  at 
Rome,  and  sometimes  considered  as  one  and  the  same  as 
Jupiter  Ammon,  sometimes  as  identical  with  Pluto,  Bac- 
chus, iEsculapius,  Osiris,f  and  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  certain, 
however,  that  his  most  magnificent  temple  was  at  Alexan- 
dria in  Egypt,  whence  all  our  most  distinguished  Christian 
Fathers  and  writers  derived  their  education  ;  that  the 
bishops  of  Serapis,  as  they  alone  were  justly  entitled  to 
be  called  bishops  of  Alexandria,  while  Alexandria  was  a 
Pagan  city,  yet  called  themselves  bishops  of  Christ ;  and 
though  Christianity  can  in  no  reasonable  sense  be  said  to 
have  been  established  in  Alexandria  while  the  temple  of 
Serapis  remained — and  Tillemont  admits  that  the  very 
first  Christian  church  that  was  ever  built,  of  which  history 
gives  us  any  certain  and  express  information,  was  founded 
by  Gregory  the  wonder-worker,  a.  d,  244,  or  after  that 
time|, — yet  have  we  an  uninterrupted  succession  of  bish- 
ops of  Alexandria  from  the  evangelist  Mark,  who  we  are 
required  to  believe  was  the  first  of  them,  downwards.  The 
Jews,  it  seems,  took  Serapis  to  be  identical  with  the  patri- 
arch Joseph  the  son  of  Sarah. § 

In  all  the  representations  of  the  crucified  King  of  the 
Jews  that  have  come  down  to  us,  the  essential  requisites 
of  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphic  have  been  most  religiously 
preserved.  The  ribs  of  the  figure  are  almost  breaking 
through  his  sldn,  and  it  seems  doubtful  whether  the  being 

♦  Lib.  5,  c.  18,  p.  348.     London  Ed.  anno  1649. 
t  Pomey  De  Diis  Indiget,  p.  268. 
t  Quoted  ia  Lardner's  Credibility,  vol.  i,  p.  594. 
§  Quasi  JS"anus  ujio. 


THE  TAURIBOLIA.  207 

SO.  represented  had  died  of  hung-er  before  he  was  nailed  to 
the  cross,  or  had  expired  under  the  inconveniences  of  that 
uncouth  appointment.  But  the  most  extraordinary  phoe- 
nomenon  attending  this  mystical  personification,  is,  that 
his  hieroglyphical  history  will  be  found  to  dove-tail  ex- 
actly into  all  the  various  and  apparently  contradictory 
developements  of  the  Christian  theology.  Thus  the  cross 
was  blessed,  but  the  figure  upon  it  was  made  a  curse  ;  and 
accordingly,  as  it  was  the  cross,  or  the  crucified,  that  was 
referred  to,  so  shall  we  find  it,  even  in  the  same  writings, 
spoken  of  as  the  blessed  cross  or  the  accursed  cross,  as  a 
badge  of  honour  or  of  shame,  of  joy  or  of  sorrow,  of  tri- 
umph or  of  humiliation. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE    TAURIBOLIA 

Were  expiatory  sacrifices,  which  were  renewed  every 
twenty  years,  and  conferred  the  highest  degree  of  holiness 
and  sanctification  on  the  partakers  of  those  holy  mysteries. 
Prudentius  informs  us,  that  in  these  religious  ceremonies 
the  Pagan  priests,  or  whoever  was  ambitious  of  obtaining 
a  mystical  regeneration,  excavated  a  pit,  into  which  he 
descended.  The  pit  was  then  covered  over  with  planks, 
which  were  bored  full  of  holes,  so  that  the  blood  and  what 
not  of  the  goat,  bull,  or  ram  that  was  sacrificed  upon  them, 
might  trickle  through  the  holes  upon  the  body  of  the  per- 
son beneath  ;  who,  having  been  thus  sanctified,  and  born 
again,  was  obliged  ever  after  to  walk  in  newness  of  life  ;  to 
maintain  a  conduct  of  the  most  inflexible  virtue  ;  to  shew 
forth  God's  praise,  not  only  with  his  lips,  but  in  his  life,,  by  giving 
up  himself  to  God's  service  ;  and  by  walking  before  him  in  holiness 
and  righteousness  all  his  days. 

Potter,  however,  in  his  Antiquities,  informs  us,  that  the 
Athenians  had  a  less  offensive  way  than  this  to  convey  the 
spiritual  blessedness  of  regeneration.  The  person  desirous 
of  it,  whether  male  or  female,  was  slipped  through  a  cha- 
racteristic part  of  the  female  habiliments,  and  thenceforth 
recognized  as  one  who  had  been  born  again.  The  only  ob- 
servable coincidence  of  the  Tauribolia  with  the  great 
sacrifice  of  Christianity,  consists  in  the  fact,  that  the 
grossest  sense  of  the  terms  in  which  the  Pagan  obscenity 


208  BAPTISM. 

can  be  described,  finds  its  excuse,  if  not  its  eanctification, 
by  its  adoption  into  the  text  of  our  New  Testament, 
where  we  read  of  "  the  blood  of  sprinkling y  that  speaketh  bet- 
ter things  than  the  blood  of  Mel,''^  (Heb.  xii  24)  ;  and 
"  SPRINKLING  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,"  (1  Pet.  i.  2). 
"  And  if  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats,  and  the  what-not  of 
an  heifer,  sprinkling  the  unclean,  sanctifieth  to  the  puri- 
fying of  the  flesh,  how  much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ 
purge  your  consciences." 

Thus  precisely  the  same  effects  of  an  imaginary  spirit- 
ual regeneration  are  ascribed  to  precisely  the  same  nasty 
ingredients — blood,  Sfc. — used  in  precisely  the  same  mode 
of  application — sprinkling.  It  may  be  that  we,  of  more 
civilized  times,  and  more  exalted  ideas,  have  acquired  the 
art  of  producing  refined  sweets  out  of  these  grossnesses ; 
but  we  have  no  right  to  forget  that  our  chemistry  was  en- 
tirely unknown  to  those  to  whom  this  language  was  at  first 
propounded.  They  who  were  to  be  converted  by  it  from 
their  Paganism  into  the  new  religion,  must  have  had  the 
one  put  upon  them  in  the  place  of  the  other,  without  their 
ever  being  able  to  perceive  the  difference. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 


The  Baptae,  or  Baptists,  were  an  effeminate  and  debauch- 
ed order  of  priests,  belonging  to  the  goddess  Cotytto,  the 
unchaste  Venus,  in  opposition  and  contradistinction  to  the 
celestial  deity  of  that  name,  who  was  ever  attended  with 
the  Graces,  and  whose  worship  tended  to  elevate  and  ex- 
alt the  moral  character,  and  to  sanctify  the  commerce  of 
generation  with  all  that  is  delicate  in  sentiment  and  tender 
in  affection.  No  worshipper  of  Venus  could  endure  the 
thought  of  impurity.  Neglect  of  the  holiness  which  her 
rites  enjoined  was  ever  punished  with  degradation  of  mind 
and  loss  of  beauty  and  health.*  The  Baptists  are  satirized 
by  Juvenal.  They  take  their  name  from  their  stated  dip- 
pings and  washings,  by  way  of  purification,  though  it  seems 

*The  man  after  God's  own  heart  exhibits  himself  as  an  awful  instance  of  the 
vengeance  of  Venus  on  one  who  turned  the  grace  of  God  (for  Venus  was  addressed, 
"  Be  thou  God,"  or  Goddess)  into  lasciviousness  :  "  My  wounds  stink  and  are 
corrupt,  through  my  lasciviousness  ;  neither  is  there  any  rest  in  my  bones,  by  rea- 
son of  my  sin." — Psahn  xxxviiL 


BAPTISTS.  209 

ihey  were  dipped  in  warm  water,  and  were  to  be  made 
clean  and  pave,  that  they  might  wallow  and  defile  them- 
selves the  more,  as  their  nocturnal  rites  consisted  chiefly 
of  lascivious  dances  and  other  abominations.  The  Bap- 
tists, or  Anabaptists,  as  they  are  called,  continue  as  an 
order  of  religionists  among-  Christians,  under  precisely  the 
same  name.  The  licentious  character  of  the  order  of  reli- 
gionists from  whom  they  are  descended,  has  received  its 
correction  from  the  improved  intelligence,  and,  conse- 
quently, improved  morality  of  the  times.  But  the  most 
unquestionable  evidence  confirms  the  fact,  that  the  Chris- 
tian Baptists  of  Germany,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
sometime  before  and  after,  came  short  of  no  impurities 
that  could  have  characterized  the  Antinomian  priests  of 
Cotytto. 


ASTROLOGICAL    CHARACTER     OF    JOHN    THE    BAPTIST. 

The  character  of  John  the  Baptist,  like  all  the  other 
personages  of  the  Gospel  story,  presents  precisely  the 
same  analogy  to  the  system  of  astronomy  which  we  trace 
in  every  personification  of  the  ancient  heathenism.  Like 
all  the  other  genii  or  saints,  he  presides  over  his  particular 
day,  or,  rather,  in  mythological  language,  is  that  day  ;  and, 
as  if  no  room  for  doubt  as  to  his  identity  should  be  left,  the 
calendars  attached  to  our  church  of  England  prayer-book 
have  fixed  that  day  as  the  24th  of  June,  the  season  pecu- 
liarly adapted  to  baptisms  or  bathings,  precisely  the  day  on 
which  the  sun  has  exhibited  one  degree  of  descent  from 
his  highest  elevation,  and  which  stands  directly  over  and 
looks  down  upon  the  25th  of  December,  the  day  fixed  for 
the  birth  of  Christ,  when  he  first  appears  to  have  gained 
one  degree  of  ascent  from  his  lowest  declension.  In  exact 
accordance  with  which  astronomical  positions,  we  find 
the  genius  of  the  24th  of  June  ( St.  John)  looking  down 
upon  the  genius  of  the  25th  of  December  {the  new  born 
Jesus),  and  saying,  "  He  must  increase,  but  I  must  de- 
crease," (John  iii.  30),  as  the  days  begin  to  lengthen  from 
the  25th  of  December,  and  to  decrease  or  shorten  from  the 
24th  of  June  downwards,  till  they  reach  the  shortest,  of 
which  the  genius  or  saint  is  the  unbelieving  Thomas. 

The   learned    and  ingenious    historian  of   the   Celtic 

Druids,  of  whose  labours  I  have  greatly  availed  myself, 

maintains   that   "  the  Essenes  were  descended  from  the 

prophet  Elijah,  and  the  Carmelite  monks  from  the  Essenes, 

19* 


210  BAPTISTS. 

whose  monasteries  were  established  before  the  Christian 
era  ;  that  these  monks,  finding  that  from  time  immemorial, 
a  certain  day  had  been  held  sacred  to  the  god  Sol,  the  /Swn, 
as  his  birth-day,  and  that  this  god  was  distinguished  by  the 
epithet  The  Lord,  persuaded  themselves  that  this  Lord 
could  be  no  other  than  their  Lord  God  :  whereupon  they 
adopted  the  religious  rites  of  this  Lord^  and  his  supposed 
birth-day,  December  the  25th,  became  a  Christian  festival, 
Paganism  being  thus  spliced  and  amalgamated  into  Chris- 
tianity." I  only  take  the  liberty  of  differing  from  this  good 
Christian  writer  so  far  as  to  deny  that  there  could  be  any 
splicing  or  amalgamation,  where  it  was  all  one  piece.  The 
great  sophism  of  Christianity  consists  in  the  pretence  of  a 
distinction  where  there  was  no  difference. 


ST.  THOMAS 

Stands  on.  the  21st  of  December,  in  all  the  darkness  of 
unbelief,  and  doubting  whether  his  divine  master,  the  sttn, 
will  ever  nse  again.  In  accordance  with  which  astronom- 
ical sense,  and  in  no  other  sense  that  divines  can  agree  up- 
on, we  find  Jesus,  the  genius  of  the  Sun,  in  the  25th  of 
Dec.  telling  the  Pharisees,  "  Your  father  Abraham  rejoic- 
ed to  see  my  day,  and  he  saw  it,  and  was  glad."  (John  viii. 
56.)  It  was  the  evident  objectof  the  writers  of  the  sacred 
allegory,  as  it  was  of  the  mystagogues  and  contrivers  of 
the  Pagan  system,  to  give  an  appearance  of  real  person- 
ages, and  of  actual  adventures  and  discourses,  to  the  pros- 
opopeia,  under  which  they  emblemized  physical  and  moral 
truths.  So  that  it  is  only  incidentally,  and  when  they  are 
somewhat  off  their  guard,  that  they  let  fall  expressions  en- 
tirely out  of  keeping  with  their  general  tenor  ;  and  fur- 
nish to  a  wary  observance,  the  key  to  the  occult  and  real 
sense  which  eludes,  and  was  intended  to  elude  the  tracta- 
ble simplicity  of  the  faithful.  At  the  same  time,  nothing  is 
more  obvious,  than  that  the  failure  of  invention,  or  fissures 
in  the  weaving  of  the  allegpry,  would  be  from  time  to  time 
patched  up  with  pieces  of  real  circumstances,  actual  ad- 
ventures, and  indistinct  reminiscences  of  conversationa 
that  had  indeed  occurred  ;  till  the  fabricators  themselves 
had  become  unable  to  distinguish  what  they  had  remem- 
bered from  what  they  had  invented.  But  who,  but  one 
who  held  it  a  virtue  to  be  stupid,  could  drop  the  clue  to 
the  allegory  put  into  his  hand  by  such  passages  as 
(Eph.  iv.  9),  "  Now  that  he  ascended,  what  is  it  but  that 


BAPTISTS.  211 

he  also  descended  first  into  the  loicer  parts  of  the  earth  9 
He  that  descended  is  the  same  also  that  ascended  ?"  This 
descent  into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth,  will  apply  to  no  sense 
of  the  actual  burial  of  a  man  upon  a  level  with  the  earth's 
surface,  or  not  ten  feet  below  it,  but  is  strictly  applicable 
to  the  sun's  descent  below  the  horizon,  by  an  equable  di- 
vision of  day  and  night,  "  to  give  light  to  them  that  sit  in  dark- 
ness, and  in  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death.'''' 

The  Pasfan  philosophers  pretended  that  their  theoloo^y, 
and  the  genealogy  of  their  gods,  did  originally,  in  an  alle- 
gorical sense,  mean  the  several  parts  of  nature  and  the 
universe.  Cicero  gives  a  large  account  of  this,  and  tells  us, 
that  even  the  ir)xpious  fables  relating  to  the  deities  include 
in  them  a  good  physical  meaning.  Thus,  when  Saturn  was 
said  to  have  devoured  his  children,  it  was  to  be  understood 
of  Time,  which  is  properly  said  to  devour  all  things.  "We 
know,"  says  this  great  heathen,  "  that  the  shapes  of  all 
the  gods,  their  age,  habits,  and  ornaments,  nay,  their  very 
genealogy,  marriages,  and  every  thing  relating  to  them, 
hath  been  delivered  in  the  exact  resemblance  to  human 
weakness.  It  is,"4ie  adds,  "  the  height  of  folly  to  believe 
such  absurd  and  extravagant  things." 

Did  any  of  them  ever  believe  any  thing  more  absurd  ? 
Did  the  annals  of  human  folly  or  madness  ever  record  any 
thing  more  extravagant,  than  that ,  new  born  children 
should  be  considered  to  have  offended  God,  or  that  a  full- 
grown  fool  should  be  believed  to  please  him,  by  washing 
his  dirty  hide,  and  suffering  a  gawky  idiot  to  talk  nonsense 
over  the  ceremony  } 

As  an  allegorical  sense  was  the  apology  offered  for 
the  manifest  absurdities  of  Paganism,  and  an  allegorical 
sense  is  challenged  for  the  contents  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, not  only  by  the  early  Fathers,  but  by  and  in  the  text 
of  that  New  Testament  itself,*  can  it  be  denied  that  both 
alike  are  allegorical  ?  And  both  being  confessedly  alle- 
gorical, the  innumerable  instances  of  perfect  reseml3lance 
between  them  are  a  competent  proof  that  the  one  is  but  .a 
modification  or  improved  edition  of  the  other,  and  that 
there  never  was  any  real  or  essential  difference  between 
them. 

*  Our  sufficiency  is  of  God,  who  also  hath  made  us  able  ministers  of  the  New 
Testament,  not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the  spirit  ;  for  the  letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit 
giveth  life."— 2  Cor.  iii.  6. 


212  THE  ELEUSINIAN  MYSTERIES. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

the  eleusinian  mysteries  ;  or,  sacrament  of  the 
lord's  supper  : 

Was  the  most  auo^ust  of  all  the  Pagan  ceremonies  cele- 
brated, more  especially  by  the  Athenians,  every  fifth  year, 
in  honour  of  Ceres,  the  goddess  of  corn,  who,  in  allegorical 
language,  had  given  us  her  flesh  to  eat ;  as  Bacchus,  the 
god  of  wine,  in  a  like  sense,  had  given  us  his  blood  to 
drink  ;  though  both  these  mysticisms  are  claimed  by  Jesus 
Christ,  (John  vi.  55.)  They  were  celebrated  every  fifth 
year  at  Eleusis,  a  town  of  Attica,  from  whence  their  name  ; 
which  name,  however,. both  in  the  word  and  in  the  signi- 
fication of  it,  is  precisely  the  same  as  one  of  the  titles  of 
Jesus  Christ.*  From  these  ceremonies,  in  like  manner,  is 
derived  the  very  name  attached  to  our  Christian  sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  supper — "  those  holy  mysteries  ;"  and  not  one 
or  two,  but  absolutely  all  and  every  one  of  the  observances 
used  in  our  Christian  solemnity.  Very  many  of  our  forms 
of  expression  in  that  solemnity  are  precisely  the  same  as 
those  that  appertained  to  the  Pagan  rite.  Nor,  notwith- 
standing all  we  hear  of  the  rapid  propagation  of  Christian- 
ity, and  the  conversion  of  Constantine,  were  these  heath- 
en mysteries  abolished,  till  the  reign  of  the  elder  Theodo- 
sius,  who  had  the  honour  of  instituting  the  Inquisition, 
which  was  so  great  an  improvement  upon  them,  in  their 
stead,  about  the  year  440. 

Mosheim  acknowledges,  that  "  the  primitive  Christians! 
gave  the  name  of  mysteries  to  the  institutions  of  the  Gospel, 
and  decorated  particularly  the  holy  sacrament  with  that 
title  ;  that  they  used  the  very  terms  employed  in  the  heathen 
mysteries,  and  adopted  some  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies 
of  which  those  renowned  mysteries  consisted.  This  imi- 
tation began  in  the  eastern  provinces  ;  but,  after  the  time 
of  Adrian,  who  first  introduced  the  mysteries  among  the 
Latins,  it  was  followed  by  the  Christians  who  dwelt  in  the 
western  parts  of  the  empire.  A  great  part,  therefore,  of 
the  service  of  the  church  in  this  century  (the  second)  had 
a  certain  air  of  the  heathen  mysteries,  and  resembled  them 
considerably  in  many  particulars." 

♦   E\i  n  o  tQ/ouivog — "  Art  thou  the  he    that  should  come  .'" — John  xi.  8. 
Ekivaic;,  the  Advent,  or  coming,  from  the  common  root, 
t  Mosheim,  vol.  1,  p.  204. 


THE  ELEUSINIAN  MYSTERIES. 


213 


ELEUSINIAN   MYSTERIES 


CHRISTIAN    SACRAMENT 


Compared. 


1.  "But  as  the  benefit  of 
initiation  was  great,  such  as 
were  convicted  of  witchcraft, 
murder,  even  though  uninten- 
tional, or  any  other  heinous 
crimes,  were  debarred  from  those 
mysteries." — BelPs  Panth.  in  lo- 
co quo  res. 

2.  At  their  entrance,  purify- 
ing themselves  by  washing  their 
hands  in  holy  water,  they  were 
at  the  same  time  admonished  to 
present  themselves  with  pure 
minds,  without  which  the  exter- 
nal cleanness  of  the  body  would 
by  no  means  be  accepted. 

3.  The  priests  who  officiated 
in  these  sacred  solemnities,  were 
called  Hierophants,  or  revealers 
of  holy  things. 

4.  After  this,  they  were  dis- 
missed in  these  words  : — 


1 .  "  For  as  the  benefit  is  great, 
if,  with  a  true  penitent  heart  and 
lively  faith,  we  receive  that  holy 
sacrament.  Sue.  if  any  be  an  open 
and  notorious  evil-liver,  or  hath 
done  wrong  to  his  neighbour, 
&c.  that  he  presume  not  to  come 
to  the  Lord's  table." — Commti- 
nion  Service. 

2.  See  the  fonts  of  holy  water 
at  the  entrance  of  every  catholic 
chapel  in  Christendom  for  the 
purpose. 

Let  us  draw  near  with  a  true 
heart,  having  our  hearts  sprink- 
led from  an  evil  conscience,  and 
our  bodies  washed  with  pure 
water. — Heb.  x.  22. 

3.  Let  a  man  so  account  of  us 
as  of  the  ministers  of  Christ,  and 
stewards  of  the  mysteries  of 
God.— 1  Cor.  iv.  I. 

4.  In  English,  thus  : — 
The  Lord  be  with  you. 


If  it  were  possible  to  be  mistaken  in  the  significancy  of 
the  monogram  of  Bacchus,  the  I  H  S,  to  whose  honour,  in 
conjunction  with  Ceres,  these  holy  mysteries  were  distinc- 
tively dedicated,  the  insertion  of  those  letters  in  a  circle 
of  rays  of  glory.,  over  the  centre  of  the  holy  table,  is  an 
hieroglyphic  that  depends  not  on  the  fallibility  of  trans- 
lation, but  conveys  a  sense  that  cannot  be  misread  by  any 
eye  on  which  the  sun's  light  shines.  I  H  S  are  Greek 
characters,  by  ignorance  taken  for  Roman  letters  ;  and 
Yes,  which  is  the  proper  reading  of  those  letters,  is  none 
other  than  the  very  identical  name  of  Bacchus,  that  is, 
of  the  Sun,  of  which  Bacchus  was  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished personifications  ;  And  Yes,  or  Ies,  with  the 
Latin  termination  us,  added  to  it,  is  Jesus.  The  surround- 
ing rays  of  glory,  as  expressive  of  the  sun's  light,  make 
the  identity  of  Christ  and  Bacchus  as  clear  as  the  sun. 

These  rays  of  glory  are  a  sort  of  universal  letter  that 
cannot  be  misread  or  misinterpreted  ;    no   written  Ian- 


214  THE    ELEUSINIAN   MYSTERIES. 

giiag-e,  no  words  that  man  could  utter,  could  so  distinctly, 
so  expressively  say  that  it  was  the  Sun,  and  nothing  but 
the  Sun,  that  was  so  emblemized .  And  these  rays  are  seen 
alike  surrounding  the  heads  of  the  Indian  Chreeshna,  as 
he  is  exhibited  in  the  beautiful  plate  engraved  by  Barlow, 
and  inscribed  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ;  round  the 
Grecian  Apollo  ;  and  in  all  our  pictures  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Nay,  more— the  epithet  The  Lord,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
peculiarly  and  distinctively  appropriate  to  the  Sun,  and  to 
all  personifications  of  the  Sun  ;  so  that  the  Sun  and  the 
Lord  were  perfectly  synonymous,  and  Sunh  day  and  the 
Lord''s  day  the  same  to  every  nation  on  whom  his  light  hath 
shone. 

As  it  was  especially  to  the  honour  of  Bacchus,  as  the 
Sun,  that  the  mysteries  were  celebrated,  so  the  bread  and 
wine  which  the  Lord  (or  Sun)  had  commanded  to  be  received^ 
was  called  the  Lord^s  supper.  Throughout  the  whole  cere- 
mony, the  name  of  the  Lord  was  many  times  repeated, 
and  his  brightness  or  glory^  not  only  exhibited  to  the  eye 
by  the  rays  which  surrounded  his  name,  but  was  made  the 
peculiar  theme  or  subject  of  their  triumphant  exultation. 
Now  bring  we  up  our  most  sacred  Christian  ordinance  ! 
That  also  is  designated,  as  the  ceremony  in  honour  of 
Bacchus  was,  the  hordes  supper.  In  that  also  all  other 
epithets  of  the  deity  so  honoured,  are  merged  in  the 
peculiar  appropriation  of  the  term  The  Lord.  It  would 
«ound  irreverently,  even  in  Christian  ears,  to  call  it 
Jesus's  supper,  or  Jesus's  table  ;  it  is  always  termed  the 
Lord^s.  And  as  in  the  Lord's  supper  of  the  ancient  idol- 
ators  at  Eleusis,  it  was  the  benefit  which  they  received 
from  the  sun's  rays  or  glory  that  were  commemorated,  so 
in  our  Christian  orgies,  it  is  the  glory  or  brightness  of  the 
same  deity  which  is  peculiarly  symbolized  and  honoured. 
A  poor  Jewish  peasant  never  was,  nor  could  have  been 
called  the  Lord.  Let  us  take  words  according  to  the 
meaning  of  words,  and  not  suffer  our  reason  to  be  sophisti- 
cated by  mere  sounds,  which  have  in  themselves  no 
meaning  at  all,  and  we  shall  see  that  our  English  word 
Glory  is  but  a  ridiculously  sonorous  mouthing  of  its 
original.  Clary.  The  exact  meaning  of  clary  is  bright- 
ness ;  the  attribute  of  brightness  is  peculiarly  characteristic 
of  the  Sun  :  use  only  the  meaning  of  the  word,  instead  of 
its  unmeaning  sound,  wherever  it  occurs,  and  the  heliola- 
trous  sense  and  origination  of  our  Christian  Communion 
Service,  and  its  absolute  identity  with  the  Pagan  myste- 


THE  ELEUSINIAN   MYSTERIES. 


215 


ries  of  Eleusis,  can  no  long-er  evade  detection  ;  for  thus 
run  the  Eleusinian  and  the  Christian  mysteries,  like 
linked  horses  in  a  chariot,  step  for  step,  and  phrase  for 
phrase,  together. 


THE    DOXOLOGY. 

"  Brightness  be  to  God  on  high  !  We  praise  thee,  we 
brighten  thee  (that  is,  we  say  that  thou  art  bright),  we 
give  thee  thanks  for  thy  great  brightness.  Heaven  and 
earth  are  full  of  thy  brightness.  Brightness  be  to  thee, 
0  Lord  (that  is,  0  Sun)  most  high  !" 

Is  not  this  the  real,  the  only  sense,  of  both  mysteries  ^ 
If  it  be  not,  our  ignorance  has,  at  least,  one  consolation  : 
we  shall  not  have  to  quarrel  with  any  body  who  can  tell 
us  what  is !  Safe  enough  are  we  from  any  thing  like  an 
idea  on  the  part  of  the  partakers  of  those  holy  mysteries  : 
a  sensible  person  who  had  received  the  sacrament,  might 
be  shown  for  a  week  afterwards  at  the  menagerie. 


PAGAN  MYTHOLOGY 


CHRISTIAN    REVELATION 


1.  Titan,  the  eldest  of  the 
children  of  heaven,  yielded  to 
Saturn  the  kingdom  of  the  world, 
provided  he  raised  no  more 
children  ;  but  on  the  birth  of 
Jupiter,  he  rebelled,  and  raising 
war  in  heaven,  prevailed  not, 
neither  was  his  place  found  any 
more  in  heaven.  He  and  all 
his  host  of  rebel  angels  were 
cast  out,  and  imprisoned  under 
mountains  heaped  upon  them. 
Their  vain  attempts  to  rise  is  the 
supposed  cause  of  earthquakes 
and  volcanoes. 

"  Or   from   our  sacred  hill,  with  fury 

thrown, 

Deep  in  the   dark    Tartarean   gulph 

shall  groan." 

Jupiter's  threat  to  the  inferior  gods, 

Iliad,  6.  Pope's  Version. 

2.  Latona  was  driven  out  of 
heaven,  and  having  beea  got 
with  child  by  Jupiter,  without 
knowledge  of  a  man,  she  brought 
forth  her  son,  our  Lord  and  Sa- 
viour    Phcebus-Apollo,     "  the 


Compared. 


1.  Satan,  the  eldest  of  the 
children  of  heaven,  yielded  to 
Jehovah  the  kingdom  of  the 
world,  provided  he  raised  no 
more  children  ;  but  on  the  birth 
of  Messiah,  he  rebelled,  and 
raising  war  in  heaven,  "  pre- 
vailed not,  neither  was  his  place 
found  any  more  in  heaven," 
(Rev.  xii.  8.)  "  And  the  an- 
gels which  kept  not  their  first 
estate,  he  hath  reserved  in  ever- 
lasting chains  under  darkness, 
unto  the  judgment  of  the  great 
day."— Jude  6. 

"  God  spared  not  the  angels 
that  sinned,  but  cast  them  down 
to  HelV'—l  Pet.  ii.  4.  Note 
well  !  the  original  word  signifies 
Tartarus. 

2.  Eve  was  driven  out  of  Par- 
adise, and  in  her  representative 
Mary,  "  seeing  she  knew  not  a 
man,"  brought  forth  her  son, 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  "  being 
the  brightness  of  his  glory,  and 


216 


THE  ELEUSINIAN   MYSTERIES. 


PAGAN    MYTHOLOGY  CHRISTIAN   REVELATIOrf 

Com'parei. 
brightness  of  his  father's  glory,"     the  express  image  of  his  person," 


and  the  express  image  of  his 
person.  She  was,  at  the  time 
of  her  delivery,  refused  a  place 
where  to  bring  forth,  and  was 
persecuted  all  her  life  by  the 
dragon  Python. 

3.  Her  son  at  length  slew  the 
Python,  and  was  by  Jupiter  ex- 
alted with  great  triumph  unto  his 
kingdom  in  heaven. 


(Heb.  i.  3,)  "  she  laid  him  in  a 
manger,  because  there  was  no 
room  for  them  in  the  inn,"  (Luke 
ii.  7.)  "And  the  dragon  perse- 
cuted the  woman  which  brought 
forth  the  man  child." — Rev.  xii. 
13. 

3.  And  the  seed  of  the  wo- 
man bruised  the  serpent's  head,. 
"  and  her  child  was  caught  up 
to  God,  and  to  his  throne." — 
Rev.  xii.  5. 


Another  edition. 

4.  Jupiter  transforms  himself 
into  a  swan,  and  in  that  shape 
enjoys  Leda,  a  married  woman, 
who  became  with  child  by  him. 

5.  The  incarnation  of  Viche- 
nou. 

6.  The  Logos,  or  JVord  of 
God,  an  epithet  of  Mercury. — 
Justin  Martyr^s  Apology. 

7.  Unum  pro  multis  dabitur 
caput,  (Virgil.) — i.  e.  One  head 
shall  be  given  as  the  redemption 
for  many. 

8.  "  The  Vandals  had  a  god 
called  Triglaf ;  one  of  those 
was  found  at  Herlungerberg, 
near  Brandenburg.  He  was  re- 
presented with  three  heads. — 
This  was  apparently  the  Trinity 
of  Paganism.''^  Such  are  the 
very    words    of    the    orthodox 

(Christian,  Parkhurst. 


Another  edition. 

4.  Jehovah,  in  the  shape  of  a 
pigeon,  obumbrates  the  wife  of 
Joseph,  who  becomes  with  child 
by  him. — Luke  i.* 

5.  The  incarnation  of  Christ. 

6.  The  Logos,  or  Word  of 
God,  an  epithet  of  Jesus  Christ. 
— St.  Johi's  Gospel. 

7.  "  So  Christ  was  once  of- 
fered to  bear  the  sins  of  many." 
Heb.  ix.  28. 

8.  "  To  God  the  Father,  Son, 
And  Spirit,  ever  blest — 

Eternal  Three  in  One — 

All  worship  be  addrest." 
Such  are  the  words  of  the  or- 
thodox Christian  Doxology. 


'  ♦  The  editors  of  the  Unitarian  New  Version  of  the  New  Testament,  who  very 
modestly  wish  to  shovel  allnhese  spurcities  and  salacities  out  of  the  sacred  text, 
have  the  impudence  to  tell  us,  in  a  note,  that  they  were  interpolated  to  lessen 
the  odium  attached  to  Christianity,  from  its  founder  being  a  crucified  Jew,  and 
to  elevate  him  to  the  dignity  of  the  heroes  and  demi-gods  of  the  heathen  mytho- 
logy. So  then,  the  argument  of  the  primitive  Christians  with  their  Pagan  op- 
ponents was  good-natured  enough — Jf  you  won^t  adopt  our  religion, — why, 
tec'//  adopt  yours. 


prTHAGORAS.  217 

PAGAN   MYTHOLOGY.  CHRISTIAN   REVELATION 

Compared. 
9.  The  ancient  Gauls  had  an  9.  The  difference  between 
idol,  under  the  name  Hesus,  Hesus  and  Jesus  is  but  a  breath. 
*vho,  the  mythologists  say,  an-  "  The  Lord  of  Hosts,  he  is 
gwered  to  the  Roman  Mars,  or  the  King  of  Glory." — Psalm 
Lord  of  Hosts,  to  whom   they     xxiv.  10. 

used  to  sacrifice  their  captives         "  Thou  art  the  King  of  Glory, 
taken  in  war  ;  of  whom  Lucan,     O  Christ  !" — Te  Deum,  14. 
book  1 ,  line  445.  "  Thou  shalt  bruise  them  with 

Horrensque  feris  altaribus  Hescs  !     a  rod  of  iron,  and  break  them  in 
pieces,  like  a  potter's  vessel." — 
HesuSf  with  cruel  altars,  hor-     Psalm  ii.  9. 
rid  god  !  "  And  he   was   clothed  in  a 

vesture  dipped  in  blood." — Rev. 
xix.  13.   . 


"  Thus  have  I  attempted  to  trace,  with  a  confidence 
continually  increasing  as  I  advanced,  a  parallel  between 
the  g-ods  adored  in  Greece,  Italy,  and  India ;  but  which 
was  the  original  system,  and  which  the  copy,  I  will  not 
presume  to  decide.  I  am  persuaded,  however,  that  a 
connection  existed  between  the  old  idolatrous  nations  of 
Egypt,  India,  Greece,  and  Italy,  long  before  the  birth  of 
Moses." 

So  concludes  the  pious  Sir  William  Jones,  Asiatic  Re- 
searches^ vol.  1,  p.  27L  The  reader  is  to  conclude  as  he 
pleases. 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

PYTHAGORAS,    B.    C.    586. 

As  all  ideas  of  man  are  derived  from  his  senses,  and 
consequently  may  be  traced  to  their  origination  from  that 
their  only  source,  the  gods  and  goddesses,  or  any  god  that 
conceit  could  form  to  itself,  would  still  admit  of  being  re- 
ferred to  its  primordial  type  in  something  the  like  of  which 
experience  had  first  been  impressed  on  the  senses.  Hav- 
ing found  innumerable  pre-existent  models  of  the  imagin- 
ary supernatural  chara"cter  of  Christ,  we  discover  in  the 
Samian  sage  every  thing  that  could  have  furnished  forth 
the  calmer  and  more  philosophic  personification  of  Unita- 
rian Christianity,  the  mere  man  Jesus. 

Pythagoras,  as  his  name  signifies,  had  been  born  under 
precisely  the  circumstances  ascribed  to  Jesus  Christ  ; 
having  been  the  object  of  a  splendid  dispensation  of  pro- 


218  PYTHAGORAS. 

phecy,  and  had  his  birth  foretold  by  Apollo  Pythus  ;  his 
soul  having  descended  from  its  primEeval  state  of  compan- 
ionship with  the  divine  Apollo,  "  the  glory  which  he  had  with 
the  father  before  the  world  was.'''' — John  vii.  5. 

Divesting  his  story,  however,  of  the  supernatural  super- 
structure that  could  be  as  easily  pretended  for  any  one 
extraordinary  character  as  for  any  other  ;  it  remains  his- 
torically certain,  that  this  first  of  philosophers,  and  most 
distinguished  individual  of  the  human  race,  was  a  real 
character,  and  was  born  at  Samos,  in  Greece,  (from 
whence  his  epithet,  the  Samian  sage,)  in  the  third  year 
of  the  48th  Olympiad — that  is,  586  years  before  the  epocha 
of  the  pretended  birth  of  his  Galilean  rival.  He  was  edu- 
cated under  Pherecydes,  of  Syrus,  of  whom  Cicero  speaks, 
as  the  first  who  inculcated  the  doctrine  of  the  distinct 
existence  and  immortality  of  the  soul ;  and  afterwards  be- 
came the  distinguished  pupil  of  the  priests  of  Egypt. — 
The  limits  of  this  work  admit  not  of  our  dwelling  on  any 
further  particulars  of  his  history,  than  those  in  which  he 
presents  the  most  clear  and  unquestionable  type  of  the 
character  afterwards  set  forth  to  the  world  under  the  pros- 
opopeia  generally  designated  as  Jesus  Christ. 

Pythagoras  is  most  characteristically  associated  with 
the  doctrine  which  he  taught,  and  which  takes  its  name 
from  him, — the  Pythagorean  Metempsychosis  *  After  hia 
master  had  broached  the  notion  of  the  existence  and  im- 
mortality of  souls,  it  was  but  a  second  and  a  necessary 
step,  to  find  some  employment  for  them  ;  and  that  of  their 
eternal  migration  from  one  body  to  another,  after  every 
effort  that  imagination  can  make,  will  be  found  at  least  as 
consistent  with  reason  as  that  of  their  existence  at  all,  and 
that  in  which  the  mind,  after  all  its  plunges  into  the  vast 
unknown,  must  ultimately  acquiesce. f 

"  Eternity  !  thou  pleasing,  dreadful  thought  ! 

Through  what  variety  of  untried  being, 

Through  what  new  scenes  and  changes  must  we  pass  ! 

The  wide,  th'  unbounded  prospect  Ues  before  us  ; 

But  shadows,  clouds,  and  darkness,  rest  upon  it  ! 

Jlddison^s  Cato. 
Pythagoras,  however,  left  behind  him  more  substantial 
evidence  of  real  wisdom,  and  of  actual  benefits  conferred 

*  MtTifi>ffvxi»ot?,  the  transmigration  of  the  soul  out  of  one  body  into  another, 
from  ficTvt  and  ^vxi,  the  life,  the  breath,  the  wit,  the  soul,  the  je-ne-sait-quoi. 

t  The  Meteiiipi^ychosis  overthrows  the  doctrine  of  the  everlasting  torments  of 
hell-fire  ;  and,  on  that  account,  is  less  congenial  to  Christian  dispositions. 


PYTHAGORAS.  219 

Upon  mankind,  than  were  ever  challenged  for  the  imagin- 
ary successor  of  his  honours.  He  is  generally  and  indispu- 
tably held  to  be  the  discoverer  of  the  celebrated  forty- 
ninth  theorem  of  the  first  book  of  Euclid  ;  which  demon- 
strates that  the  square  of  the  hypothenuse  of  the  right- 
angled  triangle  is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  squares  of  its 
sides  ;  and  to  have  first  laid  down  that  theory  of  the 
planetary  system  which,  after  having  been  laid  aside,  or 
forgotten  through  all  the  intervening  ages  of  Christian 
ignorance,  has  been  revived,  and  ehown  to  be  the  true 
and  real  system,  by  the  discoveries  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
and  subsequent  demonstrations  of  all  succeeding  astrono- 
mers. Had  any  thing  like  evidence  of  this  nature  been 
adducible'  for  the  pretensions  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  there 
would  not  have  been  an  infidel  in  Christendom. 

Pythagoras  was  a  teacher  of  the  purest  system  of 
morals  ever  propounded  to  man.  He  has  the  merit  (let 
grateful  women  apportion  his  praise)  of  having  first 
claimed  and  achieved  for  the  fair  sex,  their  distinction  of 
dress  from  that  of  men,  and  their  title  to  that  more  tender 
respect  and  exalted  courtesy  which  none  worthy  the  name 
of  men  will  ever  withhold  from  them.  He  abated  the 
ferocity  of  war,  and  taught  and  induced  mankind  to 
extend  feelings  of  humanity  and  tenderness  to  the  whole 
brute  creation.  His  personal  beauty  surpassed  whatever 
else  had  been  seen  in  humanity  ;  his  voice  was  the  rich- 
est music  that  ever  sounded  on  the  human  ear,  and  his 
powers  of  suasion  were  absolutely  irresistible.  The 
Christian  Fathers  taunt  his  vanity,  and  ridicule  his  claims 
to  supernatural  memory  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  Pythagoras 
has  himself  ascribed  his  memory  to  the  especial  favour 
of  heaven,  and  held  the  happiest  endowments  ever 
possessed  by  man  with  the  utmost  meekness  in  himself, 
and  to  the  greatest  possible  profit  to  mankind.  His 
notions  of  the  Deity  will  challenge  comparison  with 
any  that  enrich  the  pages  of  Christian  Scripture.  The 
principle  of  self-examination,  which  he  inculcated  on  his 
disciples,  as  we  see  in  the  golden  verses  ascribed  to  him,  is 
far  from  being  compatible  with  so  proud  a  spirit,  as  his 
mighty  reason  to  be  proud  might  tempt  our  envy  to 
ascribe  to  him  ;  or  if  the  genuineness  of  those  verses, 
which  at  any  rate  are  from  no  Christian  mint,  be  dis- 
putable, the  short  and  pithy  axiom  which  Clemens  Alex- 
andrinus  acknowledges  to  have  been  characteristically 
his,  must  for.  ever  number  him  among  those  who  have 
thought  of  the  Deity  so  as  none  of  the  human  race,  whe- 


220  PTTHAGORAS. 

ther  without  the  aid  of  revelation  or  with  it,  have  ever 
thought  more  worthily — "  None  but  God  is  wise,"  said 
Pythagoras. 

Pythagoras  himself  was  certainly  not  the  inventor  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  Metempsychosis,  but  learned  it  of  the 
Egyptian  monks,  in  whose  college  he  was  long  a  resident, 
and  of  whose  ecclesiastical  fraternity  he  was  unquestion- 
ably a  member  ;  he  only  inculcated  this  doctrine  more 
earnestly,  and  endeavoured  to  weld  it,  as  he  did  other  su- 
perstitions which  he  found  too  deeply  rooted  to  be  eradi- 
cated, to  useful,  or  at  least  innocent  and  inoffensive  ap- 
plications. 

The  Christian  doctrines  of  original  sin,  and  of  the 
necessity  of  being  born  again,  are  evident  misunderstand- 
ings of  the  doctrine  of  the  Pythagorean  Metempsychosis, 
which  constituted  the  inward  spiritual  grace,  or  essential 
signifieancy  of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  ;  as  the  classical 
reader  will  find  those  mysteries  sublimely  treated  of  in  the 
6th  book  of  Virgil's  J^neid.  The  term  of  migration  dur- 
ing which  the  soul  of  man  was  believed  to  expiate  in 
other  forms  the  deeds  done  in  its  days  of  humanity,  was 
exactly  a  thousand  years ;  after  which,  drinking  of  the  wa- 
ters of  Lethe,  which  caused  a  forgetfulness  of  all  that  had 
passed,  it  was  ferryed  down  the  river,  or  sailed  under  the 
conduct  of  Mercury,  the  Logos,  or  Word  of  God,  and 
"  wind  and  tide  serving,"  was  so  borne  or  carried,  and 
born  of  xoater  and  wind,*  and  launched  again  into  humanity, 
for  a  fresh  experiment  of  moral  probation.  Hence  souls 
that  had  acquitted  themselves  but  ill  in  their  previous 
existence,  were  believed  to  be  born  in  sin,  and  to  have 
brought  with  them  the  remains  of  a  corrupt  nature  derived 
from  their  former  state,  for  which  they  were  still  further 
punished  by  the  calamitous  circumstances  in  which  they 
were  born,  or  the  difficulties  with  which  they  should  still 
have  to  contend,  till  they  should  ultimately  recover  them- 
selves to  virtue  and  happiness.  This  was  the  doctrine,  and 
nothing  but  this,  which  Christ  is  represented  as  endea- 
vouring to  inculcate  upon  Nicodemus  the  ruler  of  the 
Jews  ;  and  for  his  ignorance  and  gross  apprehensions  of 
which,  he  so  tartly  rallies  that  Jewish  rabbi — "  Art  thou 

*  Our  English  of  ihe  words  sav  utj  nc  ytrtj;^?;  t£  vSarog  xai  nvtv^iaroi: — "Ea-- 
cept  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  spirit,"  (John  iii.  5,)  and  of  the  words 
«r(os  mri  na?  o  yeytiiijudo?  fx  t«  nrtvuaTo: — "  So  is  every  one  that  is  born  of 
the  spirit,"  (John  iii.  8,)  is  ajesuitical  imposition  upon  tlie  simplicity  of  the  mere 
English  reader.  The  real  rendering  is,  ^^  born  of  the  Winti,  or  Vvvr."  So 
the  Holy  (iiiosr  should  be  rendered  the  Holy  Puff.  Note,  notliiiig  makes  a 
man  so  spiritually-m'\nded  as  wind  at  tho  stomach. 


PYTHAGORAS.  221 

il  MASTER  of  Israel^  and  knowest  not  these  things'?^'' — John  iii. 
10.  It  must  be  stupidity  itself  that  could  dream  of  any 
reason  or  propriety  in  rebuking-  the  Jewish  ruler  for  not 
knowing-  these  thing^s,  if  they  were  matters  then  first  re- 
vealed, or  not  so  common  as  that  no  well-educated  person 
had  any  excuse  for  beings  ignorant  of  them. 

In  John  ix.  2,  the  disciples  are  represented  as  propound- 
ing to  Jesus  a  question  which  would  never  have  occurred 
but  to  minds  entirely  possessed  of  the  Pythagorean  doc- 
trine— "  JVIaster^  who  did  sin,  this  man  or  his  parents,  that  he 
was  born  blind  ?"  which  the  Master  (the  characteristic 
epithet  of  Pythagoras)  answers  precisely  as,  Pythagoras 
might  have  done — "  JWither  hath  this  man  sinned,  nor  his  pa- 
rents,^''  &c.  While  the  Jews  imagine  themselves  to 
launch  the  severest  invective  against  the  blind  man,  in 
holding  his  being  born  blind  as  a  proof  that  he  must  have 
been  a  very  wicked  wretch  in  some  pre-existent  state  : 
"  Tliou  wast  altogether  born  in  sins,  and  dost  thou  teach  us  V — 
John  ix.  34. 

In  Matthew  xvii.  14,  we  find  the  Pharisees  represented, 
according  to  the  Pythagorean  doctrines,  as  saying  that 
Jesus  was  Elias  ;  and  in  Matthew  xviii.  13,  Jesus  himself, 
so  far  from  discountenancing  that  doctrine,  confirms  it, 
by  giving  his  disciples  to  understand  that  John  the  Bap- 
tist was  the  soul  of  Elias  come  again  in  the  person  of  that 
prophet. 

But  the  ninetieth  Psalm,  selected  to  be  read  as  a  part 
of  our  Burial  Service,  is  entirely  Pythagorean,  and  delivers 
the  doctrine  of  the  Metempsychosis  too  particularly  to 
be  mistaken,  or  to  admit  of  any  other  possible  under- 
standing : 

"  Lord,  thou  hast  been  our  refuge  from  one  generation  to 
another  ;"  that  is,  in  every  state  of  existence  through  which 
we  have  already  passed. 

"  Thou  turnest  man  to  destruction:  again  thou  say  est,  Come 
again,  ye  children  of  men.''^* 

"  For  a  thousand  years  in  thy  sight  are  but  as  yesterday  ;  seeing 
hat  is  passed  as  a  xcatch  in  the  night. ''^ 

"  Comfort  us  again  now,  after  the  time  that  thou  hast  plagued 
us,  and  for  the  years  xoherein  we  have  suffered  adversity,''^  ^c. 

Be  it  remembered,  that  the  exact  length  of  the  Pytha- 
gorean term  of  migration  was  a  thousand  years  ;  and  surely 

*  Observe  how  evidently  this  is  the  language  of  quotation.    Some  word  of  God, 
or  from  some  sacred  scripture  which  had  reported  his  word,  before  either  the  New 
or  Old  Testament  had  been  imposed  upon  human  credulity. 
20* 


222  PYTHAGORAS. 

no  argument  could  seem  so  well  calculated  to  console  and 
comfort  the  mind  under  the  fear  of  death,  or  for  the  loss 
of  friends,  as  the  persuasion  thus  inculcated,  that  the  pe- 
riod of  separation  would  pass  but  as  a  watch  in  the  nig-ht, 
and  that,  upon  their  next  return  into  humanity,  they 
should  be  comforted  in  proportion  to  all  the  adversity  that 
they  had  g-one  through  in  their  present  condition. 

That  Pythagoras  should  have  adopted  this  whimsical 
but  sublime  theory,  as  the  basis  of  a  purer  system  of  mo- 
rality, or  rather,  perhaps,  made  the  best  of  a  system  which 
he  found  too  deeply-rooted  in  men's  minds  to  admit  of  be- 
ing safely  disturbed  ;  that  he  should  have  followed  that 
allegorical  and  a3nigmatical  mode  of  conveying  metaphysi- 
cal speculations*  and  moral  truths  which  characterized 
his  age  and  country,  thereby  subjecting  himself  and  his 
theories  to  the  ridicule  that  must  necessarily  attach  to  all 
allegories  and  figurations,  whose  significancy  can  no  long- 
er be  traced  ;  that  he  should  have  descended  to  the  jug- 
gling tricks  of  pretended  communications  with  the  Deity  ; 
that  he  should  have  deceived  mankind  in  so  many  partic- 
ulars in  which  it  cannot  be  denied  that  he  was  a  deceiver, 
and  have  degraded  his  great  wisdom  by  a  conjunction  with 
as  great  folly  ;  has  its  full  apology  in  the  simple  statement, 
Pythagoras  was  a  man  ;  and  with  all  his  imperfections  on 
his  head,  we  shall  look  among  the  race  of  men,  for  his 
better,  in  vain,  yea,  for  his  equal,  or  his  second,  but  in  vain. 

Pythagoras  was  entirely  a  Deist,  a  steady  maintainer 
of  the  unity  of  God,  and  of  the  eternal  obligations  of  moral 
virtue.  No  Christian  writings,  even  to  this  day,  can  com- 
pete in  sublimity  and  grandeur  with  what  this  illustrious 
philosopher  has  laid  down  concerning  God,  and  the  end 
of  all  our  actions  ;  and  it  is  likely,  says  Bayle,  that  he 
would  have  carried  his  orthodoxy  much  farther,  had  he 
had  the  courage  to  expose  himself  to  martyrdom. 

The  circumstances  of  the  death  of  Pythagoras  are  vari- 
ously reported.  He  lived  at  Crotona,  in  Milo's  house, 
with  his  disciples,  and  was  burnt  in  it.  A  man  whom  he 
refused  to  admit  into  his  society,  set  the  house  on  fire. 

According  to  Dica3archus,  he  fled  to  the  temple  of  the 
muses  at  Metapontum,  and  died  there  of  hunger.  See  upon 
this  subject  the  learned  collections  of  Menagius.     Arnobius 

*  His  religious  respect  or  antipathy  to  henns,  were  the  circumstance  divested  of 
Christian  exaggeration,  or  we  were  possessed  of  the  clue,  might  admit  of  as  ration- 
al an  unravelling  as  the  Egyptian  worship  of  onions.  See  this  Diegesis,  p.  23. 
Aristoxenus  assures  us  that  Pythagoras  would  often  eat  beans,  his  religious  con- 
ceits notwithstanding. 


PYTHAGORAS.  223 

affirms  that  he  was  burned  alive  in  a  temple  ;  others  state 
that  he  was  slain  in  attempting-  to  make  his  escape. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  his  death  was  violent, 
notwithstanding  the  divine  honours  paid  to  him  after- 
wards, and  that,  with  all  that  he  did  to  deceive  mankind, 
or  rather  perhaps  to  preserve  himself,  he  fell  at  last  a  mar- 
tyr to  his  generous  efforts  to  undeceive  them. 

The  strongest  type  of  resemblance  or  coincidence  with 
the  apostolic  story,  which  the  history  of  the  Samian  sage 
presents  is,  that  the  Egyptian  Therapeuts  boasted  of  his 
name  as  a  member  of  their  monastic  institution  ;  and  that 
Pythagoras  certainly  made  his  disciples  live  in  common, 
and  that  they  renounced  their  property  in  their  patrimony, 
and  that  "  as  many  as  were  possessors  of  lands  or  houses,  sold 
them,  and  brought  the  prices  of  the  things  that  were  sold,  and  laid 
them  down  at  the  apostles^  feet ;  and  distribution  ivas  made  to  every 
man  according  as  he  had  need." — Acts  iv.  35. 

An  ill  construction  was  put  upon  their  union,  and  it 
proved  very  fatal  to  them.  That  society  of  students  being 
looked  upon  as  a  faction  which  conspired  against  the  state, 
sixty  of  them  were  destroyed,  and  the  rest  ran  away. 
"  Three  hundred  young  men,"  says  Justin,  "  formed  into 
a  society  by  a  kind  of  oath,  lived  together  by  themselves, 
and  were  looked  upon  as  a  private  faction  by  the  state, 
who  intended  to  burn  them  as  they  were  assembled  in  one 
house.  Almost  sixty  of  them  perished  in  the  tumult,  and 
the  rest  went  into  banishment."  This  event,  however, 
appears  not  to  have  occurred  till  some  time  after  the  death 
of  their  divine  master. 

Let  the  reader  compare  these  historical  facts  with  the 
story  of  the  Holy  Ghost  descending  in  the  shape  of  fire  upon 
the  heads  of  the  apostles,  when  they  were  all  with  one  accord 
in  one  place,  and  their  subsequent  dispersion,  as  detailed  in 
the  second  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  so  grossly 
fabulous,  and  so  monstrously  absurd,  that  there  is  not  in 
the  present  day  a  Christian  minister,  who  dare  bring  the 
subject  before  the  contemplation  of  his  hearers  ;  and  then 
let  him  give  to  Christianity  the  benefit  of  all  the  doubt  he 
shall  entertain  that  these  facts  are  not  the  basis  of  that 
fiction. — See  his  Creed,  and  Golden  Verses,  in  our  chapter 
Specimen's   of  Pagan  Piety. 

So  conscious  are  the  Christian  Fathers  of  the  superi- 
ority of  Pythagoras  in  every  respect,  that  they  endeavour 
to  show  that  he  was   a  Jew  ;*  that  he  had  been  an  imme- 

*  Imo  fuere  qui  Nazaratum  Pythagone  prEeceptorem  idem  hie  est  cum  Zabrato, 
ipsum  esse  Ezechelem  prophetam  tradiderunt.     Ex   populo    Judasoium    genus 


224  FTTHAOORAS. 

diate  disciple  of  the  Jewish  prophet  Ezekiel ;  that  he,  as 
well  as  Pherecydes,  Thales,  Solon,  and  Plato,  had  learned 
the  doctrine  of  the  trpe  God,  not  only  among  the  Egyp- 
tians, but  from  the  Hebrews  themselves. 

In  the  account  which  the  emperor  Constantine  gives  of 
the  matter,  in  his  oration  to  the  holy  congregation  of  the 
clergy,  Pythagoras,  to  be  sure,  is  an  impostor,  inasmuch 
as  that  "  those  things  which  the  prophets  had  foretold,  he 
delivered  to  the  Italians  as  if  God  had  particularly  reveal- 
ed them  to  him."* 

Lactantius,  however,  admits,  and  expresses  his  wonder, 
that  when  Pythagoras,  and  afterwards  Plato,  incited  by 
the  love  of  seeking  truth,  had  travelled  as  far  as  to  the 
Egyptians,  the  Magi,  and  the  Persians,  to  learn  the  rites 
and  ceremonies  of  those  nations,  they  should  never  have 
consulted  the  Jews,  with  whom  alone  the  true  wisdom  was 
to  be  found,  and  to  whom  they  might  have  gone  more  read- 
ily."!    The  Jews  ! .'— Paugh  ! 

"  Of  the  vast  variety  of  religions  which  ha-ve  prevailed 
at  different  times  in  the  world,  perhaps  there  was  no  one 
that  has  been  more  general  than  that  of  the  Metempsy- 
chosis. It  continued  to  be  believed  by  the  early  Christian 
Fathers,  and  by  several  sects  of  Christians. 

"  As  much  as  this  doctrine  is  now  scouted,  it  was  held 
not  only  by  almost  all  the  great  men  of  antiquity,  but  a 
late  very  ingenious  writer,  philosopher,  and  Christian 
apologist,  avowed  his  belief  in  it,  and  published  a  defence 
of  it ;  namely,  the  late  Soame  Jenyns." — Higgins''  Celtic 
Druids,  pp.  283,  284. 

It  is  not,  indeed,  rational  ;  but  what  metaphysical  spec- 
ulation of  any  sort  is  so  .?  Had  it  been  more  frightful,  it 
would  have  been  more  orthodox.* 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

ARCHBISHOP    TILLOTSON's    CONFESSION    OF     THE    IDENTITY    OP 
CHRISTIANITY    AND    PAGANISM. | 

As  it  is  really  too  much  to  be  believed,  and  we  wish  to  draw 
on  no  man's  confidence  who  may  have  the  means  of  cer- 

duxisse  Pythagoram,  plerosque  arbitrare  scribit  Ambrosius. — KorthoUi  Pagan. 
Obtrect.  p.  48.  <Paai  Se  ovts?  t )■  atyvTrTO)  e  /(Oiov  nctQ'  aiyvnrwv,  aXXa  xai  /tUQ 
E[iQat(x)v,  ra  ntQi  th  oituj;  c^iJa/^ijiui  9iii. —  Theodoritus  Therapeut.  lib.  3. 

*  Constantine's  Oration,  c.  9. 

t  Soleo  admirari  quod  cum  Pythagoras  et  postea  Plato  amore  indagandae  verita- 
tis  accensi,  ad  /Egyptios  et  Magos,  ol  Persas  usque  penetrassent,  at  earum  gentium 
ritun  et  sacra  cognoscerent — ad  Judicos  tanturn  non  accesserint,  penes  quoa  tunc 
solos  erat,  et  quo  facilius  ire  potuissent — Diviti.  Inst.  lib.  4,  cap.  2. 

X  For  the  "  Life  of  Archbiahop   Tillotson,"   see    VVadsworth's   Ecclesiastical 


TILLOTSON.  226 

tifying  himself,  that  the  highest  dignitary  of  the  church 
of  England,  the  brightest  ornament  it  ever  had,  and  the 
honestest  man  that  ever  received  honour  from  it,  or  re- 
flected honour  on  it,  should  so  have  given  tongue^  so  have 
confessed  the  whole  cheat,  betrayed  his  craft,  and  yielded 
every  thing  that  philosophy  could  aim  to  conquer ;  I  give 
the  '■'■  litera  scripta,''^  the  '■'■ipsissima  verba^^''  the  written 
letter,  the  very  words  themselves,  which  will  be  found  in  the 
forty-sixth  of  the  "  fifty-four  sermons  and  discourses 
which  were  published  by  his  Grace  himself;"  this  being 
the  second  of  the  two  entitled  "  Concerning  the  Incarna- 
tion of  our  blessed  Saviour  ;^''  on  the  text  (John  i.  14),  "  The 
Word  was  made  flesh ;"  and  preached  in  the  church  of  St. 
Lawrence  Jewry,  Dec.  28,  1680  ;*  occurring  in  the  fourth 
volume,  8vo,  of  Woodhouse's  edition,  a.  d.  1744  ;  and  of 
that  volume,  p.  143.  It  is  remarkable,  that,  even  so  long 
ago,  mankind  were  not  quite  so  stupid  as  not  to  scent  out 
the  latitant  waggery  of  these  discourses,  which  would  have 
gone  nigh  to  have  cost  an  ecclesiastic  of  humbler  rank 
his  ears  in  the  pillory,  or  at  least  a  year  or  two  in  Oakham 
Jail.  The  mitred  infidel,  however,  in  an  advertisement  to 
the  reader,  informs  us,  that  "the  true  reason  of  publishing 
these  discourses,  was  not  the  importunity  of  friends,  but 
the  importunate  clamours  and  malicious  calumnies  of 
others,  whom  he  heartily  prays  God  to  forgive,  and  give 
them  better  minds."     Amen. 

Some  .Account  of  the  Christian  Dispensation. 

"  The  third  and  last  thing  which  I  proposed  upon  this 
argument  of  the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  was  to  give 
some  account  of  this  dispensalion,  and  to  show  that  the 
wisdom  of  God  thought  fit  thus  to  order  things,  in  great 
condescension  to  the  weakness  and  common  prejudices  of 
mankind. f 

"  And  it  is  the  more  necessary  to  give  some  account  of 
this  matter,  because  after  all  that  hath  hitherto  been  said 

Biography.  An  Essay  on  his  Character  and  Writings,  constitutes  the  fifteenth  of 
the  author's  fifty  letters  from  Oakham,  and  will  be  found  \a  the  21st  num- 
ber of  the  1st  volume  of  The  Lion. 

*  The  characteristic  distinction  between  Archbishop  Tillotson  and  other  archbish- 
ops and  bishops,  those  of  our  own  times  more  especially,  is,  that  he  was  foolish 
enough  to  commit  himself  by  public  preaching,  which  our  modern  bishops,  on  the 
principle  "  least  said  soonest  mended,"  know  better  than  to  do  ;  and  that  though 
he  was  withal  a  very  bishop,  he  was  an  honester  man  than  any  of  them  ;  and, 
God  knows,  that's  no  compliment. 

+  The  reader  will  observe,  that  the  hyphen,  thuSj  — ,  is  inserted,  to  indicate 
that  the  sentence  is  relieved  of  its  prolixity  :  not  a  syUable  is  added,  nor  one  omit- 
ted, that  in  the  least  degree  could  qualify  the  sense. 


226  TILLOTSON. 

in  answer  to  the  objections  against  it,*  it  may  still  seem 
very  strange  to  a  considering  man,t  that  God,  who  could 
without  all  this  circumstance  and  condescension  have 
done  the  business^^  should  yet  have  made  choice  of  this 
way,"  &c. 

"  But  since  God  hath  been  pleased  to  pitch  upon  this 
way  rather  than  any  other,  this  surely  ought  to  be  reason 
enough,  whether  the  particular  reasons  of  it  appear  to  us 
or  not.§"— P-  144. 

"  Secondly,  I  consider,  in  the  next  place,  that  in  several 
revelations  which  God  hath  made  of  himself  to  mankind, 
he  hath,  with  great  condescension,  accommodated  himself 
to  the  condition  and  capacity,  and  other  circumstances,  of 
the  persons  and  people  to  whom  they  were  made.  For 
the  religion  and  laws  which  God  gave  them  (i.  e.  the 
Jewish  nation)  were  far  from  being  the  best  (indeed!). 
God  gave  them  statutes  which  xoere  not  good,  that  is,  very 
imperfect  in  comparison  of  what  he  could  and  would  have 
given  them  had  they  been  capable  of  them-H — p.  145. 

"  Thirdly,  I  observe  yet  further,  that  though  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  as  to  the  main  and  substance  of  it,  be  a  most 
perfect  institution,  yet,  upon  a  due  consideration  of  things, 
it  cannot  be  denied,  that  the  manner  and  circumstances  of 
this  dispensation  are  full  of  condescension  to  the  weakness 
of  mankind,  and  very  much  accommodated  to  the  most 
common  and  deeply  radicated  prejudices  of  men.lF 

"  But  in  history  and  fact,  this  is  certain,  that  some 
notions,  and  those  very  gross  and  erroneous,  did  almost 
universally  prevail ;  and  though  some  of  these  were  much 
more  tolerable  than  others,  yet  God  seems  to  have  had 
great  consideration  of  some  very  weak  and  gross  appre- 
hensions of  mankind  concerning  religion.  And  as  in  some 
of  th6  laws  given  by  Moses,  God  was  pleased  particularly 
to  consider  the  hardness  of  the  hearts  of  that  people ;  so 
he  seems  likewise  to  have  very  much  suited  the  dispensa- 
tion of  the  Gospel,  and  the  method  of  our  salvation,  by 

*  Which  is,  being  interpreted — All  that  has  been  said  in  answer  to  the  objec- 
tions, has  been  very  jejune  and  unsatisfactory. 

t  Which  is,  being  interpreted — Ii  is  considering  men  who  are  the  infidels. 

i  Which  Ls,  beinj;  interpreted — Much  :ulo  about  nothing. 

§  Which  is,  being  interpreted,  "  Shut  your  eyes,  and  open  your  mouth,  and 
see  what  God  will  send  you." 

II  This  might  have  been  fair  play,  provided  God  himself  was  not  able  to  en- 
large or  iinprove  their  capacity. 

If  Which  is,  being  interpreted — The  Christian  religion,  even  as  to  the  main 
and  substance  of  it,  is  full  of  nonsense  and  barbarity,  and  only  suited  to  the 
brutal  apprehensions  of  savages  and  fools. 


TILLOTSON.  227 

the  incarnation  and  sufferings  of  his  Son,  to  the  common 
prejudices  of  mankind,  especially  of  the  heathen  world, 
whose  minds  were  less  prepared  for  this  dispensation  than 
the  Jews> 

"  That  God  hath  done  this  in  the  dispensation  of  the 
Gospel,  will,  I  think,  very  plainly  appear  in  the  following 
instances. — p.  147. 

"1st,  The  world  was  much  given  to  admire  mysteries,! 
most  of  which  were  either  very  odd  and  fantastical,  or  very 
lewd  and  impure,  or  very  inhuman  and  cruel.  But  the 
great  mystery  of  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  was 
such  a  mystery  as  did  obscure  and  swallow  up  all  other 
mysteries.  Since  the  world  had  such  an  admiration  for 
mysteries,  that  was  a  mystery  indeed — a  mystery  beyond 
all  dispute,  and  beyond  all  comparison.^ — p.  48. 

"  2dly,  There  was  likewise  a  great  inclination  in  man- 
kind to  the  worship  of  a  visible  Deity,  (so)  God  was  pleased 
to  appear  in  our  nature,  that  they  who  were  so  fond  of  a 
visible  Deity  might  have  one,  even  a  true  and  natural 
image  of  God  the  Father,  the  express  image  of  his 
person. § 

"  3dly,  Another  notion  which  has  generally  obtained 
among  mankind,  was  concerning  the  expiation  of  the  sins 
of  men,  and  appeasing  the  offended  Deity  by  sacrifice — 
upon  which  they  supposed  the  punishment  due  to  the 
sinner  was  transferred — to  exempt  him  from  it,  especially 
by  the  sacrifices  of  meri.|| — p.  148.     And  with  this  general 

*  Good  God  !  could  a  bishop  in  stronger  significancy  discover  his  heartfelt  ha- 
tred of  Christianty.  He  held  Christians  to  be  more  hard-hearted  than  the  Jewa 
themselves,  and  so  God  suited  his  religion  to  their  hard-heartedness. 

t  Compare  with  the  chapter  Eleusinian  Mysteries,  and  with  Admissions  of  Chris- 
tian Writers,  p.  52,  No.  51,  in  this  Dieoesis. 

t  O  spirit  of  Voltaire  !  Was  ever  sarcasm  on  earth  more  sarcastic  ?  Was  it 
in  plainer  language  that  an  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  could  have  told  us,  that  the 
Christian  religion  was  the  oddest,  the  lewdest,  and  the  bloodiest  that  ever  was 
upon  earth,  "  beyond  all  dispute,  and  beyond  all  comparison  ?" 

§  This  was  the  Spaniard  Cortes's  way  of  converting  the  Mexicans,  when  he 
threw  down  their  image  of  the  Sun,  and  unfurled  a  picture  of  the  Virgin  Mary  in  ita 
stead,  with  a — "  There,  you  dogs,  an'  you  must  have  something  to  worship,  wor- 
ship that  !" — History  of  America. 

And  thus  in  the  original  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  written  by  Abdias  Bishop  of 
Babylon,  who  professes  to  have  been  ordained  by  the  Apostles  themselves,  we 
have  it  related,  that  the  blessed  Saint  Philip  the  Evangelist,  preaching  to  the  Scy- 
thians, exclaimed,  "  Throw  down  this  Mars  and  break  him,  and  in  theplaet 
in  which  he  seems  to  stand  fixed,  set  up  the  Cross  of  my  Lord  Jesus  Christy 
and  worship  that.'^ — Dejicite  hunc  Martem  et  coufringite,  et  in  loco  in  quo  Gxxm 
videtur  stare,  crucem  Domini  mei  Jesu  Christi  affigite,  et  banc  adorate.  Fabricii 
Cod.  Apocryp.  tom.  2,  in  hac  re. 

II  That  is,  God  was  pleased  to  approve  and  sanction  human  sacrifices.  And 
what  was  the  difference  between  this  God  and  Moloch  ?     His  Grace,  however 


228  TILLOTSON. 

notion  of  mankind,  God  was  pleased  so  far  to  comply,  as 
once  for  all  to  have  a  general  atonement  made  for  the  sins 
of  all  mankind,  by  the  sacrifice  of  his  only  Son,  whom  his 
wise  providence  did  permit  by  wicked  hands  to  be  crucified  and 
slain. 

"4thly,  Another  very  common  notion,  and  very  rife  in 
the  heathen  world,  and  a  great  source  of  their  idolatry, 
was  their  apotheosis,  or  canonizing  of  famous  and  eminent 
persons,  by  advancing  them  after  their  death  to  the  dig- 
nity of  an  inferior  kind  of  gods,  fit  to  be  worshipped  by 
men  here  on  earth,  &c.  Now,  to  take  men  off  from  this 
Icind  of  idolatry,  and  to  put  an  end  to  it,  behold !  one  in 
our  nature  exalted  to  the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on 
high,  to'  be  worshipped  by  men  and  angles  ;  one  that 
was  dead  and  is  alive  again,  and  lives  for  evermore  to  make  in- 
tercession for  MS.* 

"  5thly,  The  world  was  mightily  bent  upon  addressing 
their  requests  and  supplications,  not  to  the  Deity  imme- 
diately, but  by  some  mediators  between  the  gods  and 
them.  In  a  gracious  compliance  with  this  common  ap-. 
prehension,  God  was  pleased  to  constitute  and  appoint 
One  in  our  nature  to  be  a  perpetual  advocate  and  inter- 
cessor in  heaven  for  us,  bone  of  our  bone,  and  flesh  of  our 
flesh  ;f  so  very  nearly  allied  and  related  to  us,  (that)  we 
may  easily  believe  that  he  hath  a  most  tender  care  and 
concernment  for  us,  if  we  ourselves,  by  our  own  wilful 
obstinacy,  do  not  hinder  it ;  for  if  we  be  resolved  to  con- 
tinue impenitent,  there  is  no  help  for  us  ;  we  must  die  in 
our  sins,  and  salvation  itself  cannot  save  us."  (p.  152) — 
Thus  far  his  Grace  of  Canterbury. 

The  reader  is  requested  to  compare  this  language 
throughout,  with  the  avowals  of  Mosheim,  the  apologies 

has  the  most  explicit  texts  of  the  J^ew  Testament  on  his  side,  (and  no  rational 
•nan  will  ever  have  a  word  to  say  against  the  Old  Testament) :  "  For  if  the 
Hood,  of  bulls  and  goats,  and  the  ashes  of  an  heifer  sprinkling  the  un- 
clean, sanctifieth  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh,  how  much  more  shall  the 
blood  of  Christ,"  8fc.  7  lleb.  ix.  13. — The  force  of  the  whole  argument  is, — 
the  more  monstrously  horrible,  the  more  cniel,  barbarous,  and  bloody,  the  more 
sanctifying  efficacy  in  the  sacrifice,  and  the  more  acceptable  to  this  horrid  God. 

♦Perhaps  this  is  the  severest  irony,  the  most  caustiO  sarcasm ;  that  was  ever 
couched  in  words.  It  is  the  "  Shew  'em  in  here,''  and  "  Ml  alive  0 .'"  of  Bar- 
tholomew Fair  It  Ls — "  Our  tricks  beat  theirs!"  It  is — "  The  fools !  the 
idiots  !    nothing  can  be  too  gross  for  'em." 

t  This  is  good,  honest,  downright  materialism.  "  Bone  of  our  bone,  and 
flesh  of  our  Hesh,"  must  involve  our  ways  of  making  and  sustaining  bone  and 
flesh.  Here  Ls  no  skiey  and  cloudy  work,  and  no  room  to  rail  at  Mahomet's 
terreetrial  paradise. 


RESEMBLANCE.  229 

of  Minucius  Felix,  Justin  Martyr  and  Tertullian — with 
the  concessions  of  Gregory  of  Csesarea,  Origen,  and 
Melito,  in  their  places  in  this  Diegesis — and  with  the 
total  absence  of  any  historical  recognition  of  the  exist- 
ence of  Christianity,  as  distinct  from  Paganism,  within 
the  first  hundred  years,  or  as  distinct  from  a  sectarian 
excrescence  grown  upon  Paganism,  within  the  first 
thousand  years ;  and  let  him  be  faithful  to  his  own  con- 
victions. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

RESEMBLANCE     OF     PAGAN     AND     CHRISTIAN     FORMS    OF   WOR- 
SHIP. 

It  would  be  alien  from  all  ends  of  a  Diegesis,  or  general 
narration  of  the  character  and  evidences  of  the  Christian 
religion,  to  have  any  ear  or  regard  to  the  vituperations 
and  wranglings  of  the  various  sects  of  Christians,  who  are 
each,  if  attended  to,  forunchristianizing  all  but  themselves, 
and  thus  tearing  the  cause  of  their  common  Christianity 
to  pieces,  or  surrendering  it  undefended  to  the  scorn  and 
triumph  of  its  enemies.  If  Christianity  be  not,  or  was 
not,  what  the  majority  of  those  who  professed  and  called 
themselves  Christians,  through  a  thousand  years  of  its 
existence,  held  it  to  be,  there  is  a  sheer  end  of  all  possi- 
bility of  ascertaining  what  it  was  or  is,  since,  at  that  rate, 
it  amounts  to  no  more  than  the  ideal  chimera  of  any 
cracked  brain  you  shall  meet  with;  and  all  that  can  be 
said  of  it  is — 

"  As  the  fool  thinketh, 
So  the  bell  tinketh." 

The  intolerant  and  persecuting  spirit  of  the  established 
Protestant  church,  and  the  severity  of  the  penalties  in- 
flicted by  law  on  all  conscientious  and  honest  avowals  of 
the  convictions  which  superior  learning  and  deeper  re- 
search might  lead  to,  has  enforced  on  the  wisest  and  best 
of  men  a  necessity  of  conveying  their  general  scepticism 
under  covert  of  attacking  the  peculiar  doctrines  and  prac- 
tices of  the  church  of  Rome.  Because  this  mode  of  attack 
would  be  endured,  this  only  was  to  be  tolerated.  The 
predominant  sect,  so  their  own  tenure  on  the  profits  of 
gospelUng  remained  unendangered,  would  look  on  with 
indifference,  or  even  join  in  the  game  of  running  down  and 
tearing  to  pieces  their  common  parent.  To  this  conten- 
21 


230  RESEMBLANCE. 

tious  spirit  of  Christians  among  themselves,  and  their 
union  only  in  the  wicked  policy  of  persecuting  infidels, 
we  owe  discoveries  which  in  no  other  way  could  have  at- 
tracted equal  attention.  We  are  thus  enabled  to  carry  some 
or  other  of  recognised  Christian  authorities  all  the  way 
with  us,  taking  up  one  where  we  set  down  another,  till  we 
arrive  at  the  complete  breaking  up  of  all  pretence  to 
evidence  of  any  sort,  and  bring  orthodoxy  itself  to  sub- 
scribe the  demonstrations  of  reason.  Thus  M.  Daille,  in 
his  attempt  to  show  that  the  religious  worship  of  his  fel- 
low Christians  of  the  Roman  Catholic  communion  could 
be  distinctly  traced  to  the  institutions  of  Numa  Pompilius, 
must  lead  every  mind,  capable  of  tracing  our  Protestant 
forms  of  piety  to  Roman  Catholic  institutions,  to  connect 
the  first  and  last  link  of  the  sorites:  ergo^  Protestant  cere- 
monies must  have  had  the  same  origination. 

Dr.  Conyers  Middleton,  the  most  distinguished  orna- 
ment of  the  church  of  England,  could  not,  compatibly 
with  his  personal  convenience,  venture  to  go  the  whole 
length  of  the  way  which  he  points  out  to  the  travel  of 
freer  spirits,  though,  by  demonstrating  the  utter  falsehood 
and  physical  impossibility  of  all  and  every  other  pretended 
miracle  that  ever  was  in  the  world,  not  excepting  one 
(except  such  as  he  might  have  been  put  in  the  pillory  if 
he  had  not  excepted),  he  leaves  the  conclusion  to  be 
drawn — as  it  may  be  by  every  mind  capable  of  drawing  a 
conclusion,  and  as  he  could  securely  .calculate  that  it 
would  be — with  a  stronger  effect  of  conviction  than  if  he 
had  himself  prescribed  it. 

Without  regarding  any  of  the  distinctions  without  differ- 
ence upon  which  the  jarring  sects  of  Christians  wrangle 
among  themselves,  we  pass  now  from  the  comparison  of 
the  doctrines  of  what  has  been  called  divine  Revelation, 
with  the  previously  existing  tenets  and  dogmas  of  Pagan- 
ism, to  an  examination  of  the  no  less  striking  resemblance 
of  Pagan  and  Christian  forms  of  worship. 

Priests,  altars,  temples,  solemn  festivals,  melancholy 
grimaces,  ridiculous  attitudes,  trinkets,  baubles,  bells, 
candles,  cushions,  holy  water,  holy  wine,  holy  biscuits, 
holy  oil,  holy  smoke,  holy  vestments,  and  holy  books, 
state  candlesticks,   dim-painted  windows,  *  chalices,  sal- 

*  In  the  most  splendid  chapel  of  the  Methodists  (Queen  Street,  Lincoln's  Inn), 
the  altar  stands  in  a  druidical  alcove,  upon  which  the  light  descends  through  yel- 
low {!;las8,  to  give  to  the  countenance  of  their  priests  such  a  death-like  tinge,  as 
might  make  thciii  seem  to  be  standing  under  the  inuiiediato  illapses  of  inspiration, 
"  Creatures  not  of  this  earth,  and  yet  being  on  it." 


RESEMBLANCE.  231 

vers,  pictures,  tablets,  achievements,  music,  &c.  are  found 
in  various  modifications  and  arrangements,  not  only  in 
the  sanctuaries  of  the  Roman  Catholic  communion,  but 
some  or  other,  or  all  of  them,  even  in  methodistical  con- 
venticles, or  in  Unitarian  pagodas  supposed  to  be  at  the 
farthest  remove  from  any  intended  adoption  of  the  Pagan 
and  Papal  ceremonies. 

We  have  seen  the  pontifical  mitre,  the  augural  staff, 
the  keys  of  Janus,  and  the  Capitoline  chickens,  em- 
blazoned on  the  armorial  bearings,  not  of  Popish,  but  of 
our  Protestant  bishops.  The  religious  faction  that  seemed 
very  reasonably  to  object  to  the  "  pomps  and  vanities  of 
this  sinful  world,  while  in  the  possession  of  those  who 
had  corrupted  the  pure  faith  of  Christianity,  very  meekly 
and  consistently  take  upon  themselves  the  burthen  of  three 
times  the  revenues  of  that  corrupt  church.*  Those  who 
were  shocked  at  so  flagrant  a  violation  of  the  precepts  of 
their  divine  master,  as  that  of  the  bishop  of  Rome,  who 
styled  himself  servant  of  the  servants  of  God,  were  content 
to  be  known  only  as — Right  Reverend  and  Most  Reverend 
Fathers  in  God,  His  Grace  the  Lord  Archbishop,  Bishop, 
Prelate,  Metropolitan,  and  Primate,  next  in  precedency 
to  the  blood  royal,  &c.  &c.  We  have  only  to  hope  that 
Lactantms  might  have  carried  the  matter  too  far  where  he 
says,  that  "  among  those  who  seek  power  and  gain  from 
their  religion,  there  will  never  be  wanting  an  inclination 
to  forge  and  to  lie  forit."t 

"  That  Popery  has  borrowed  its  principal  ceremonies 
and  doctrines  from  the  rituals  of  Paganism,"  is  a  fact 
which  the  most  learned  and  orthodox  of  the  established 
church  have  most  strenuously  maintained  and  most  con- 
vincingly demonstrated. 

That  Protestantism  has  b'orrowed  its  principal  cere- 
monies and  doctrines  from  the  rituals  of  Popery,  is  a  fact 
which  the  most  learned  and  orthodox  of  the  Catholic 
church  as  strenuously  maintain,  and  as  convincingly 
demonstrate.  The  conclusion,  that  Christianity  is  al- 
together Paganish,  is  as  inevitable,  as  that  if  it  be  to  be 
found  neither  among  Catholics  nor  Protestants,  there  can 
be  no  such  thing  upon  earth. 

THE    WHITE    SURPLICE, 

As  worn  by  all  our  Protestant  clergy,  was  the  dress  of  the 
Pagan  priesthood  in  a  part   of  their  public  officiations, 

*  See  the  Table  of  Ecclesiastical  Revenues.         f  Lactant.  Do  fals.  Relig.  1.    4. 


232  RESEMBLANCE. 

and  is  so  described  by  the  satirist  Juvenal,*  and  the  poet 
Ovid.f  It  was  the  peculiar  habiliment  of  the  priests  of 
Isis ;  and  Isis  herself  being  believed  to  have  been  the  in- 
ventress  of  linen,  of  which  these  surplices  are  made,  her 
effeminate  priests  were  distingnished  from  more  manly 
imposters  by  the  still-applicable  epithet  of  surplice  or 
linen-wearers.  Silius,  however,  speaking  of  the  rites  used 
in  the  Gaditan  Temple  of  Hercules,  instructs  us  that  the 
priests  of  Hercules  were  also  distinguished  by  wearing 
the  white  surplice.  "  They  went  barefoot,  practised 
chastity,  had  no  statues,  wore  white  linen  surplices,  and 
paid  tithe  to  Hercules;"  that  is,  they  were  liberal  in 
subscriptions  to  keep  up  the  system  that  kept  them  up. 


HOLY    WATER. 

Water,  wherein  the  person  is  baptised  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. —  Church  of 
England  Catechism. 


THE    BAPTISMAL    FONT, 

In  our  Protestant  churches,  and  we  can  hardly  say  more 
especially  the  little  cisterns  at  the  entrance  of  our  Catholic 
chapels,  are  not  imitations,  but  an  unbroken  and  never 
interrupted  continuation  of  the  same  aquaminaria  or 
amula,  which  the  learned  Montfaucon,  in  his  Antiquities, 
shows  to  have  been  vases  of  holy  water,  which  were 
placed  by  the  heathens  at  the  entrance  of  their  temples  to 
sprinkle  themselves  with  upon  entering  those  sacred  edifices. 
"  And  with  pure  dews  sprinkled,  enter  the  temples,"| 
Euripides  stands  only  in  paraphrase  in  our  Heb.  x.  22, 
"  Let  us  draw  near  with  a  true  heart,  having  our  hearts 
sprinkled  from  an  evil  conscience,  and  our  bodies  washed 
with  pure  water."  The  same  vessel  was  called  by  the 
Greeks  the  sprinkler.^  Two  of  these,  the  one  of  gold,  the 
other  of  silver,  were  given  by  Croesus  to  the  temple  of  Apol- 
lo at  Delphi.  Justin  Martyr,  the  second  in  succession  of 
the  Christian  Fathers,  next  to  those  who  are  called  apos- 
tolic,, says,  that  "  this  ablution,  or  wash,  was  invented  by 
demons,  in  imitation  of  the  true  baptism,  that  their  votaries 

*  Qm  grege  liniger  circumdatus  et  grege  calvo. — Juv.  6.  3. 

t  NuncDea  linigera  colitur  celeberrima  turba. —  Ovid.  Met.  1.  746. 

t KaSuQatg  ie  dQoaotg 

' A(fvSi)cxvauivoi  OTii^fTt  vauf. 
§  IIsQiQfjavxtiqiov. 


RESEMBLANCE.  2SS 

might  also  have  their  pretended  purifications  by  water."* 
There  certainly  must  have  been  something  supernaturally 
ingenio\is  in  the  inventions  of  these  diabolical  imitators, 
who  always  contrived  to  be  the  authors  of  the  very  first 
specimens  of  what  they  imitated,  and  to  get  their  imita- 
tions into  full  vogue  before  the  originals  from  which  they 
copied  were  in  existence.  The  "  sanctification  of  water 
to  the  mystical  washing  away  of  sin,"  and  in  signification 
of  "  a  death  unto  sin  and  a  new  birth  unto  righteousness," 
had  not  only  been  used,  but  most  abundantly  abused, 
before  its  original  institution  as  a  Christian  sacrament ; 
as  we  find  Ovid  in  verse,t  and  the  best  and  wisest  of  the 
whole  human  race,  Cicero,  in  his  philosophical  writings, 
severely  rebuking  the  egregious  absurdity  of  expecting 
moral  improvement  from  any  such  foolish  and  contempti- 
ble superstitions. 

The  form  of  the  aspergillum^  or  sprinkling-brush,  as  used 
by  the  clergy  of  the  Catholic  communion  in  sprinkling  our 
Christian  congregations,  is  yet  to  be  seen  in  bas-reliefs  and 
ancient  coins,  wherever  the  insignia  or  emblems  of  the 
Pagan  priesthood  are  described.  It  may  be  seen  at  this 
day  on  a  silver  coin  of  Julius  Cajsar,  as  well  as  on  the 
coins  of  many  other  emperors.  The  severe  ridicule  and 
sarcasm  heaped  by  our  Protestant  clergy  on  their  Catholic 
brethren,  for  extending  the  benefit  of  these  mysterious 
sprinklings  to  their  horses,  asses,  and  other  cattle,  would 
come  with  a  better  grace,  if  they  themselves  would  explain 
what  there  is  of  a  more  rational  and  dignified  significancy 
in  sprinkling  new-born  infants,  who,  in  the  eye  of  reason 
and  common  sense,  might  seem  as  little  capable  of  receiv- 
ing any  benefit  from  the  ceremony  as  the  brute  creation. 

The  ancient  Pagans  had  especial  gods  and  goddesses  who 
presided  over  the  birth  of  infants.  The  goddess  J^undina 
took  her  name  from  the  ninth  day,  on  which  all  male  chil- 
dren were  sprinkled  with  holy  water,  as  females  were  on 
the  eighth,  at  the  same  time  receiving  their  Pagan  name  ; 
of  which  addition  to  «the  ceremonial  of  Christian  baptism, 
we  find  no  mention  in  the  Christian  Scriptures.  When  all 
the  forms  of  the  Pagan  nundination  were  duly  complied 

*  Kai  TO  Xbtqov  Sr]  r&ra  axoaavrsg  ot  dai^iovtg  Sict  t«  nQoqitjra  MixriQvxnei'oy, 
tvtjQYtiaav  xai  qavntnv  tavro?  rag  tts  ia  uoa  avrvn  eniSaivovrai, — Just  Mart. 
jJpoZ.  1,91,  p.  edit.  Thirlb. 

t  Ah  minium  faciles  qui  tristia  cri;  nina  csedis 
Fluminea  toUi  posse  putetis  aqut, . — Ovid.  Fast.  2.  45. 
At  animilabes  nee  diuternitate  evanescere  necullis  amnis  elui  potest. — Cicero. 

21* 


234 


RESEMBLANCE. 


with,  the  priest  gave  a  certificate  to  the  parents  of  the  re- 
generated infant  ;  it  was  thenceforth  duly  recognized  as  a 
legitimate  member  of  the  family  and  of  society,  and  the 
day  was  spent  in  feasting  and  hilarity. 


Facsimile    of  a   Pagan    Certifi- 
cate of  JVundination. 

I  certify  you,  that  in  this  case 
all  is  well  done,  and  according 
unto  due  order,  concerning  the 
nundination  of  this  child,  who, 
being  born  in  original  sin,  and 
in  the  wrath  of  God,  is  now,  by 
the  laver  of  regeneration  in 
baptism,  received  into  the  num- 
ber of  the  children  of  God,  and 
heirs  of  the  right  of  life, 

Arcan.  Probabiliutn, 


Copy  of  the  form  of  a  Christian 
Certificate  of  Baptism.. 

I  certify  you,  that  in  this 
case  all  is  well  done,  and  ac- 
cording unto  due  order,  con- 
cerning the  baptizing  of  this 
child,  who,  being  born  in  ori- 
ginal sin,  and  in  the  wrath  of 
God,  is  now,  by  the  laver  of  re- 
generation in  baptism,  received 
into  the  number  of  the  children 
of  God,  and  heirs  of  everlasting 
life. — Church  of  England  Bap- 
tismal Service. 


Tlie  old  stories  and  impostures  of  the  ancient   Paganism,  and 
the  new  versions  of  them,  as  adopted   and  sanctified  by  the  faith 


of   Christian 
thus — 


believers,  may    be     compared    by    juxta-position, 


Cicero,  concerning  the  origin 
of  divination,  relates — 

That  a  man  being  at  plough 
in  a  certain  field  of  Etruria, 
and  happening  to  strike  his 
plough  somewhat  deeper  than 
ordinary,  there  started  up  be- 
fore him,  out  of  the  furrow,  a 
Deity,  whom  they  called  Tages. 
The  ploughman,  terrified  by  so 
strange  an  apparition,  made 
such  an  outcry,  that  he  alarmed 
all  his  neighbours,  and  in  a  short 
time  drew  the  whole  country 
around  him;  to  whom  The  God, 
in  the  hearing  of  them  all,  ex- 
plained the  whole  art  and  mys- 
tery of  divination  :  which  all 
their  writers  and  records  affirmed 
to  be  the  genuine  origin  of  that 


The  whole  collegiate  church 
of  regular  canons,  concerning 
the  origin  of  St.  Mary  of  Ira- 
pruneta,*  relate — 

When  the  inhabitants  of  Im- 
pruneta  had  resolved  to  build 
a  church  to  the  Virgin,  and 
were  digging  the  foundations 
of  it  with  great  zeal,  on  a  spot 
marked  out  to  them  by  heaven, 
one  of  the  labourers  happened 
to  strike  his  pickaxe  against 
sometl^pg  under  ground,  from 
which  there  issued  presently  a 
complaining  voice  or  groan. — 
The  workmen  being  greatly 
amazed,  put  a  stop  to  their 
work  for  a  while;  but  having 
recovered  their  spirits,  after 
some  pause   they   ventured    to 


Impruneta,  a  small  town  six  miles  from  Florence. 


RESEMBLANCE.  235 

discipline  for  which  the  old  open  the  place  from  which  the 
Tuscans  were  afterwards  so  voice  came,  and  found  the  mira- 
famous. —  Cic.de  JDivin.  2.  '23.  culous  image.  This  is  delivered 
Cicero,  however,  subjoins,  that  by  their  writers,  not  grounded, 
to  attempt  to  confute  such  as  they  say,  on  vulgar  fame,  but 
stories  would  be  as  silly  as  to  on  public  records  and  histories, 
believe  them,  confirmed   by  a  perpetual  series 

of   miracles — Middletoii's    Pre/. 

Disc,  to  Letter  from  Rome. 
Our  modern  Iconoclasts*  will  be  ready  to  cry  out,  that 
the  asserters  of  these  popish  stories  were  no  Christians : 
not  seeing  the  djjeinma  they  rush  on,  in  subjecting  them- 
selves to  the  utterly  unanswerable  challenge.  Who  then 
were  Christians  9  Let  them  strike  from  their  list,  if  they 
please,  all  the  writers,  whose  faith  and  credibility  has  been 
pawned  and  forfeited  on  stories,— than  which  the  best  are 
than  this — no  better;  let  them  join  the  laugh  against  their 
Eusebius,  for  taking  owls  for  angels;  their  St.  Augustin, 
for  preaching  the  gospel  to  a  whole  nation  of  men  and 
women  that  had  no  heads;  their  Origen,  for  being  a  priest 
of  the  goddess  Cybele  and  of  Jesus  Christ  at  the  same 
time;  their  TertuUian,  for  believing  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  because  it  was  impossible ;  their  Gregory  for  writ- 
ing letters  to  the  Devil,  yes !  and  their  great  Protestant 
reformer  Martin  Luther,  for  seriously  believing,  that  the 
Devil  ran  away  with  children  out  of  their  cradles  and  put 
his  own  imps  in  their  places.  And  then  produce  all  the 
testimonies  they  shall  have  left,  of  the  existence  of  a  re- 
ligion that  was  not  essentially  and  absolutely  pagan,  at 
any  time  before  the  period  of  their  pretended  reformation. 
The  only  difference  was,  that  Jupiter  was  turned  into 
Jehovah,  Apollo  into  Jesus  Christ,  Venus's  pigeon  into 
the  Holy  Ghost,  Diana  into  the  Virgin  Mary,  a  new  no- 
menclature was  given  to  the  old  materia  theologica  :  the 
demigods  were  turned  into  saints  ;  the  exploits  of  the  one 
were  represented  as  the  miracles  of  the  other  ;  the  pagan 
temples  became  Christian  churches  ;  and  so  ridiculously 
accommodating  were  the  converters  of  the  world  to  the 
prejudices  of  their  pagan  ancestors  and  neighbours,  that 
we  find,  that  for  the  express  and  avowed  purposes  of  ac- 
commodating matters  that  the  change  might  be  the  less 
offensive,  and  the  old  superstition  as  little  shocked  as 
possible,  they  generally  observed  some  resemblance  of 
quality  and  character  in  the  saint  whom  they  substituted 

*  Image  breakers. 


236  RESEMBLANCE. 

to  the  old  deity.  "If  in  converting  the  profane  worship 
of  the  Gentiles  to  the  pure  and  sacred  worship  of  the 
church,  the  faithful  were  wont  to  follow  some  rule  and 
proportion,  they  have  certainly  hit  upon  it  here,  {at  Rome) 
in  dedicating  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  temple  formerly 
sacred  to  the  Bona  Dea,  or  Good  Goddess."*  In  a  place 
formerly  sacred  to  Apollo,  there  now  stands  the  Church  of 
Saint  Apollinaris,  built  there,  as  they  tell  us,  in  order  that 
the  profane  name  of  that  Deity  might  be  converted  into 
the  glorious  name  of  this  martyr. 

Where  there  anciently  stood  the  temple  of  JIfars,  they  have 
erected  a  Church  to  Saint  Martina,  with  Itiis  inscription, 

Mars  hence  expelled;  Martina  martyr'd  maid 
Claims  now  the  worship  which  to  him  was  paid.t 

It  is  certain  that  in  the  earlier  ages  of  Christianity,  the 
Christians  often  made  free  with  the  sepulchral  stones  of 
heathen  monuments,  which  being  ready  cut  to  their  hands, 
they  converted  to  their  own  use,  and  turning  downwards 
the  side  on  which  the  old  epitaph  was  engraved,  used 
either  to  inscribe  a  new  one  on  the  other  side,  or  leave  it 
perhaps  without  any  inscription  at  all.  This  has  fre- 
quently been  the  occasion  of  ascribing  martyrdom  and 
saintship  to  persons  and  names  of  mere  Pagans. 


THE    PANTHEON. 

The  noblest  heathen  temple  now  remaining  in  the 
world,  is  the  Pantheon  or  Rotunda,  which,  as  the  inscrip- 
tion over  the  portico  informs  us,  having  been  impiously 
dedicated  of  old  by  Agrippa  to  Jove  and  all  the  Gods, 
was  piously  reconsecrated  by  Pope  Boniface  the  Fourth, 
to  the  Mother  of  God  and  all  the  Saints.^ 

*  Si  nel  rivoltare  il  profuno  culto  de  gentili  nel  sacro  e  vero,  osservarono  i 
fedeli  qualche  proportione,  qui  la  ritrovarono  assai  conveniente  nel  dedicare  a 
Maria  virgine  un  tempio,  ch'era  della  Bona  Dea. — Rom.  Med.  Gior.  2.  Rion  di 
Rissa,  10. 

t  The  inscription   of  course  is  in  Latin,  and  this  it  is — 
Martyrii  gestans  virgo  Martina  coronam 
Ejecto  hinc  Martis  numina  Templa  tenet. 
t  The  inscription  is — 

PANTHEON,  &c. 

AB    AGRIPPA    AUGUSTI    6ENER0 

IMPIE    JOVI,     C^TERISQUE   MENDACIBIT9    DIIS 

A  BONIFACIO  nil.  PONTIFICE 

DEIPAR JE  ET  S.  S.  CHRISTI   MARTYRIBUS   PIE 

DICATUM, 

&C. 


RESEMBLANCE. 


237 


Inscriptions  in  Pagan    Temples* 

1. 

To  Mercury   and  Minerva, 

Tutelary  Gods. 

2. 

To  the  Gods  who  preside  over 

this  Temple. 

3. 

To  the  Divinity  of  Mercury, 

the  availing,  the  powerful, 

the  unconquered. 

4, 

Sacred 

To  the  Gods 

and  Goddesses 

with 

Jove  the  Best  and  the  Greatest. 

5. 

Apollo's  Head, 

surrounded  with  rays  of  glory. 

6. 

The  mystical  letters 

I  HS, 

surrounded  with  rays   of  glory. 


Inscriptions  inChristian  Churches.* 

1. 

To  St.  Mary  and  St.  Francis, 

My  Tutelaries. 

2. 

To  the  Divine  Eustorgius, 

who  presides  over  this  Temple. 

3. 

To  the  Divinity  of  St.  George, 

•     the  availing,  the  powerful, 

the  unconquered. 

4. 

Sacred 

To  the  presiding  helpers, 

St.  George  and  St.  Stephen, 

with 

God  the  Best  and  Greatest. 

5. 

Venus's  Pigeoa, 

surrounded  with  rays  of  glory. 

6. 

The  mystical  letters 

IHS, 

surrounded  with  rays  of  glory. 


Aringhus,  in  his  account  of  subterraneous  Rome, 
acknowledges  this  conformity  between  the  Pagan  and 
Christian  forms  of  worship,  and  defends  the  admission  of 
the  ceremonies  of  heathenism  into  the  service  of  the 
church,  by  the  authority  of  the  wisest  prelates  and  go- 
vernors, who  found  it  necessary,  he  says,  in  the  conversion 
of  the  Gentiles,  to  dissemble  and  winkf  at  many  things, 
and  yield  to  the  times;  and  not  to  use  force  against  cus- 
toms which  the  people  were  so  obstinately  fond  of,  nor  to 
think  of  extirpating  at  once  every  thing  that  had  the 
appearance  of  profane,  but  to  supersede  in  some  mea- 
sure the  operation  of  the  sacred  laws,  till  these  converts 


*  1.  Mercnrio  etMinervae,  Diia 

Tutelarib. 
2.  Dii  qui  huic  templo  praesident. 


*  1.  Marie  et  Francisce,  Tutelares 

mei. 

2.  Divo  Eustorgio,  qui  huic  templo 

praesidet. 

3.  Nnmini  Divi  Georgii,  pollenti, 

potent! ,  invicto. 

4.  Divis  prsestitibus  juvantibus,  Georgio 

Stephanoque,   cum  Deo  Opt.  Max. 

Grtiter's  Inscriptions.  Boldoniuss  Epigraphs. 

t "  'And  the  times  of  this  ignorance  God  winked  a^."— Acta  xvii,  30. 


3.  NumiaiMercurii,  pollenti,  potenti, 

invicto. 

4.  Diia  Deabus  que  cum  Jove. 


238  RESEMBLANCE. 

convinced  by  degrees,  and  informed  of  the  whole  truth, 
by  the  suggestions  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  should  be  content 
to  submit  in  earnest  to  the  yoke  of  Christ.* 

The  reader  will  do  himself  the  justice  of  collating  this 
admission  with  the  same  accommodating  policy  of  St. 
Gregory,  adduced  in  our  Chapter  of  Admissions,  p.  48. 


SAINTS    AND    MARTYRS    THAT    NEVER    EXISTED. 

The  last  of  ten  thousand  features  of  resemblance  be- 
tween Paganism  and  Christianity,  which  might  be  adduced 
to  establish  their  absolute  identity,  which  we  shall  care  to 
notice,  is  the  striking  coincidence  that  the  Christian  person- 
ages, like  the  Pagan  deities,  were  frequently  created  by  er- 
rors of  language,  mistakes  of  noun  substantives  for  proper 
names,  ignorance  of  the  sense  of  abbreviated  words,  sub- 
stitution of  one  letter  for  another,  &c.  &c.  so  that  words 
which  had  only  stood  for  a  picture,  a  cloak,  a  high-road, 
a  ship,  a  tree,  &c.  in  their  original  use,  were  passed  over 
in  another  language  as  names  of  gods,  heroes,  saints,  and 
martyrs,  when  no  such  persons  had  ever  existed.  Thus 
have  we  a  Christian  church  erected  to  Saint  JimphiholuSy 
another  to  Saint  Viar — Christian  prayers  addressed  to 
the  holy  martyr  Saint  Veronica ;  and  Chrestus  adored  as 
a  god,  by  the  ignorance  that  was  not  aware  that 

Jlmphibolus  was  Greek  for  a  cloak; 

Viar.  abbreviated  Latin  for  a  perfectus  Viarum^  or  over- 
seer of  the  highways; 

Vera  Icon,  half  Latin  and  half  Greek  for  true  image;  and 

Chre'stusf  the  Greek  in  Roman  letters  for  any  good  and 
useful  man  or  thing. 

*Ac  maximi  subinde  pontifices  quam  plurima  prima  quidem  facie  dissimnlanda 
dnxere,  optimum  scilicet  rati  tempori  deferendum  esse;  suadebant  quippe  sibi,  baud 
ullam  adversus  gentilities  ritus  vim,utpote  quimordicus  a  fidelibus  retinebantur,  ad- 
hibendam  esse;  neque  ullatenus  enitendum,  ut  quicquid  profanos  saperet  raorea, 
omnino  tolieretur,  quinimo  quam  maxima  utendum  lenitate,  sacrarumque  legum  ex 
parte  intermittendum  imperium arbitrabantur. — Tom.  l,lib.  1,  c.  21. 

t  This  mistalie  originates  in  what  is  called  the  "lotacism,  which  consists  in 
pronouncing  the  i  like  tj.  The  modern  Greeks  give  them  both  the  sound  of  the 
Italian  /  or  English  E.  This  prevailed  much  in  Egypt,  and  hence  is  frequently 
eeen  to  take  place  in  the  Alexandrine  MSS.  Hence  also  Xoinroc  and  XQijorog 
have  been  confounded ;  and  Suetonius  has  written,  "  Juda;os  impulsore  Chhesto 
assidue  tumultuantes  Roma  expulit." — Elsley's  Annotations  on  the  Gospels, 
vol.  1,  p.  xxz. 

But  .surely  this  will  read  quite  as  well  if  taken  exactly  the  other  way.  It  waa 
as  easy  for  the  Christian-evidence  manufacturei-s  to  change  E  into.I,  as  for  Suetooi* 
US  to  have  changed  I  into  E. 


SPECIMENS    OF    PAGAN   PIETY.  239 

Notwithstanding  the  idiot's  dream  of  an  imaginary  pre- 
Protestant  state  of  Christianity,  or  of  Christianity  in  its 
primitive  purity,  ere  what  are  called  the  corruptions  of  the 
feomish  church  had  mingled  with  and  defiled  the  stream, 
our  Protestant  historians  are  not  able  to  make  good  their 
evidence  of  the  existence  of  Christianity,  in  any  time  or 
place,  in  separation  Irom  the  most  exceptionable  of  those 
corruptions.  Never  was  there  the  day  or  the  hour  in 
which  Christianity  was,  and  its  corruptions  were  not.  The 
thing  of  supposable  rational  evidence,  historical  fact,  sub- 
limedoctrines,  moral  precepts,  and  practical  utility,  which 
we  hear  of  in  the  coxcomb-divinity  of  an  Unitarian  chapel, 
is  a  perfect  ens  rationis^  the  beau  ideal  of  conceit,  that  never 
had  its  type  in  history.  Though  the  most  accurate  cal- 
culations satisfactorily  prove  that  not  more  than  a  twen- 
tieth part  of  the  Roman  empire  had  embraced  the  Christian 
name  before  the  conversion  of  Constantine,  yet  on  the 
occasion  of  that  prince's  death,  his  historian,  Eusebius,* 
tells  us  of  masses  which  were  celebrated,  and  prayers  which 
were  said  for  his  soul  in  the  Apostle's  church,  as  a  thing 
of  course,  and  in  a  way  in  which  it  was  impossible  that 
such  performance  of  mass  and  prayers  for  the  dead  could 
have  been  spoken  of,  had  there  been  any  contrary  doctrine 
or  practice  known  to  Christ's  church,  of  higher  antiquity 
or  of  better  sanction  than  they. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

SPECIMENS    OF    PAGAN    PIETY. 
Hqo^vQata. 

"  The  first  of  the  Orphicf  Hymns  is  addressed  to  the 
goddess  nQo&vQaia,  or  the  Door-keeper,  and  as  it  is  perhaps 
the  most  ancient  monument  extant  of  the  adoration  paid 
to  the  deity  who  was  supposed  to  preside  over  child-births, 
and  whom  the  Romans  afterwards  called  Juno  Lucina,  or 
Diana  Lucina,"  I  present  the  reader  with  a  literal  transla- 
tion of  it,  which  I  find  ready  made  to  my  hand,  in  Park- 
hurst's  Hebrew  Lexicon  :-— 

*  Euseb.  Hist,  of  Constantino,  book  4,  ch.  71. 
t  Orpheus,  or  rather  Onomacritiis,  lived  560  b.  c. 


240 


SPECIMENS    OF    PAGAN    PIETY. 


"  To  PROTHYRiEA,  tht  Incensc,  Storax. 
"Hear  me,0  venerable  g-oddess, demon  with  many  names,* 
aid  in  travail,  sweet  hope  of  child-bed  women,  Saviour  of 
females,  kind  friend  to  infants,  speedy  deliverer,  propitious 
to  youthful  nymphs,  Prothyrcea !  Key-bearer,  gracious 
nourisher,  grentle  to  all,  who  dwellest  in  the  houses  of  all, 
delightest  in  banquets  !  Zone-looser,  secret,  but  in  thy 
works  to  all  apparent!  Thou  sympathises!  with  throes, 
but  rejoicest  in  easy  labours  ;  lUthyria,  in  dire  extremi- 
ties, putting  an  end  to  pangs;  thee  alone  parturient 
women  inv(jke,  rest  of  their  souls,  for  in  thy  power  are 
those  throes  that  end  their  anguish,  Jirtemis,  llythyria, 
reverend  Prothyrcea.  Hear,  immortal  dame,  and  grant  us 
offspring  by  thy  aid,  and  save  us,  as  thou  hast  always 
been  the  Saviour  of  all  /" — Lexicon,  under  the  word  d'73 — 
to  bring  forth  or  be  delivered.j 

A  free  poetical  version  of  an  hymn  to  Diana,  expressive 
of  her  attributes,  as  generally  believed  and  worshipped 
about  the  time  of  St.  Paul,  to  the  measure  of  the  Sidlan 
Mariner's  Hymn  : — 

"  Gi-eat  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians." — Acts  xix,  S4. 


"  Great  Diana!  huntress  queen! 
Goddess  bright,  august,  serene! 
In  thy  countenance  divine 
Heaven's  eternal  glories  shine. 

Thou  art  holy!  thou  alone, 
Next  to  Juno,  fill'st  the  throne! 
Thou  for  us  on  earth  wast  seen — 
Thou,  of  earth  and  heav'n  the  queenf 

They  to  thee  who  worship  pay, 
From  thy  precepts  never  stray ; 
Chaste  they  are,  and  just  and  pure, 
And  from  fatal  sins  secure; 

*  And  what  was  to  hirtder  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary  from  being  one  of  the 
names  of  this  demon  ?  Godfrey  Higgins,  Esq.  in  his  most  instructive  and  inter- 
esting History  of  the  Celtic  Druids,  published  a.  d.  1827,  states  that  he  counted 
upwards  of  forty  different  names  under  the  image  of  the  Virgin  at  Loretto. — p. 
109. 

+  The  reader  will  observe,  that  as  the  distinguishing  attributes  of  the  Pagan 
divinities  were  represented  in  their  statues,  it  was  absolutely  impossible  that  this 
Divine  Virgin,  kind  friend  to  infants,  could  be  symbolized  otherwise  than  aa 
with  a  child  in  her  arms.  But  such  a  representation  could  not  poasibly  aymbo- 
ize  or  distinguish  the  mother  of  Jesna  from  any  other  mother  ! 


SPECIMENS  ,  OF    PAGAN    PIETY.  241 

Peace  of  mind  'tis  their's  to  know, 
To  thy  blessed  sway  who  bow  ; 
Chastest  body,  purest  mind — 
Will,  to  will  of  God  resign'd  ; 
Conquest  over  griefs  and  cares  ; 
Peace^ — for  ever  peace,  is  their's. 

0  bright  goddess  !  once  again 
Fix  on  earth  thy  heav'nly  reign  ; 
Be  thy  sacred  name  ador'd. 
Altars  rais'd,  and  rites  restor'd  ! 

But  if  long  contempt  of  thee 
Move  thy  sacred  deity 
This  so  fond  request  to  slight. 
Beam  on  me,  on  me,  thy  light. 

Thy  adoring  vot'ry,  I 

In  thy  faith  will  live  and  die  ; 

And  when  Jove's  supreme  command 

Calls  me  to  the  Stygian  strand, 

1  no  fear  of  death  shall  know, 
But  with  thee  contented  go  : 
Thou  my  goddess,  thou  my  guide, 
Bear  me  through  the  fatal  tide  ; 

Land  me  on  th'  Elysian  shore, 
Where  nor  sin,  nor  grief  is  more — 
Life's  eternal  blest  abode. 
Where  is  virtue,  where  is  God." 
Mrst  published  in  the  Author''s  Clerical  Reviett},in  Ireland. 


THE    PRAYER    OF    SIMPLICIUS. 

There  is  a  most  beautiful  prayer  of  the  Pagan  Simpli- 
citis,  generally  given  at  the  end  of  Epictetus's  Enchiridion, 
and  almost  the  model  of  that  used  in  our  Communion  Ser- 
vice, "0  Almighty  God^  to  whom  all  hearts  are  open^  all  desires 
known,^^  &c.  The  ideas  are  precisely  the  same  ;  the  words 
and  the  machinery  alone  are  a  little  varied.  I  find  a  ready* 
made  poetical  version  of  this,  in  Johnson's  Rambler. 

"  0  thou,  whose  pow'r  o'er  moving  worlds  presides, 

Whose  voice  created,  and  whose  wisdom  guides  I 
1^*' '    On  darkling  man  in  pure  effulgence  shine, 

And  cheer  the  clouded  mind  with  light  divine. 

'Tis  thine  alone,  to  calm  the  pious  breast 
.     ,    With  silent  confidence  and  holy  rest. 
iJ^M .  From  thee,  great  Jove  !    we  spring,  to  thee  we  tend, 

Path,  Motive,  Guide,  Original,  and  End  !" 


342  sPEciMEirs  or  pagaN  tiett. 

THE      CREED      OP      PYTHAGORAS. 
"  There  is  one  God,  and  there  is  none  other  but  he." — Mark  xu.  32. 


"God  is  neither  the  object  of  sense,  nor  subject  to  pas- 
sion, but  invisible,  only  intelligible,  and  supremely  intelli- 
gent. In  his  body  he  is  like  the  light,  and  in  his  soul  he 
resembles  truth.  He  is  the  universal  spirit  that  pervades 
and  diffuseth  itself  over  all  nature.  All  beings  receive 
their  life  from  him.  There  is  hut  One  only  God  !  !  who  is 
not,  as  some  are  apt  to  imagine,  seated  above  the  world 
beyond  the  orb  of  the  universe  ;*  but  being  himself  all  in 
all,  he  sees  all  the  beings  that  fill  his  immensity,  the  only 
principle,  the  light  of  heaven,  the  Father  of  all.  He  pro- 
duces every  thing,  he  orders  and  disposes  every  thing ;  he 
is  the  reason,  the  life,  and  the  motion  of  all  beings." — Dr. 
Collyer^s  Lectures,  quoted  by  G.  Higgins.  Esq.  Celtic  Druids^ 
4to.  p.  126. 

Mr.  Higgins,  adducing  this  bit  of  Paganism,  exclaims, 
"How  beautiful  !"  But  surely,  he  would  not  think  of 
putting  these  umanctified  notions  of  the  deity  on  a  footing 
with  the  sublime  description  of  the  evangelical  poet  Dr. 
Watts,  who,  knowing  so  much  more  about  God  than 
Pythagoras  did,  tells  us, 

His  nostrils  breathe  out  fiery  streams, 

He's  a  consuming  fire  ; 
His  jealous  eyes  his  wrath  inflame. 

And  raise  his  vengeance  higher !  .'" 

Watt's  Hymns,  book  1,  hymn  42. 

The  consolations  and  advantages  which  the  Christian 
derives  from  the  blessed  light  of  the  Gospel,  may  be  best 
appreciated  by  thus  comparing  them  with  the  darkness  of 
Paganism : 

"  So  lies  the  snow  upon  a  raven's  back  !" 


THE    GOLDEN    VERSES    OP    PYTHAGORAS. 

Of  these,  I  supply  a  free  poetical  version,  by  the  father 
of  the  late  Mr.  John  Adams,  of  Edmonton,  to  whom  I 

*  This  sentiment  of  Pythagoras,  so  many  years  before  the  Christian  era,  is  e^ 
dently  the  correction  of  some  grosser  form  of  demonolatry,  which  had  prevailed  in 
the  heathen  world  before  the  time  of  Pythagoras,  and  which  had  been  expreeeed 
in  Buch  words  as  "  Our  Father,  which  art  in  heaven,  &c. 


SPECIMENS    OP    PAGAN    PIETY.  243 

owe   my  prima  elementa  of  literature.     The  Greek  text  is 
below.* 

"  Let  not  soft  slumber  close  thine  eyes, 

Before  thou  recoUectest  thrice 

Thy  train  of  actions  through  the  day  : 

*  Where  have  my  feet  found  out  their  way  ? 

What  have  I  learn'd,  where'er  I've  been, 

From  all  I've  heard,  from  all  I've  seen  ? 

What  know  I  more  that's  worth  the  knowing  ? 

What  have  I  done  that's  worth  the  doing  ? 

What  have  I  sought  that  I  should  shun  ? 

What  duty  have  I  left  undone  ? 

Or  into  what  new  follies  run  ?' 

These  self-inquiries  are  the  road 

That  leads  to  virtue  and  to  God." 


THE    MORALS    OF    CONFUCIUS. 

The  result  of  the  learned  researches  of  the  pious  Sir 
William  Jones  was,  his  established  conviction  "  that  a 
connection  existed  between  the  old  idolatrous  nations  of 
Egypt,  India,  Greece,  and  Italy,  long  before  the  birth  of 
Moses." — Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  1,  p.  271. 

"  The  philosophic  Baillie  has  remarked,  that  every  thing 
in  China,  India,  and  Persia,  tends  to  prove  that  these 
countries  have  been  the  depositaries  of  science,  not  its 
inventors."  f 

Dr.  Mosheim  has  proved  the  establishment  of  the  The- 
rapeutan  monks  at  Alexandria  before  the  time  when  Christ 
is  said  to  have  been  on  earth  ;  and  that  these  Therapeu- 
tan  monks  were  professors  of  the  Eclectic  Philosophy,  avow- 
edly collecting  and  bringing  together  the  best  tenets  of 
moral  philosophy  which  could  be  gathered  from  all  the 
various  systems  of  the  world.  They  were,  for  this  pur- 
pose, as  well  as  to  extend  their  power  and  influence,  mighty 
travellers,  and  could  not  have  failed  of  visiting  China. 
Among  the  maxims  which   Kon-fulz-see,  or  Confucius,  the 

*  ikfijiJ'  vnvov  fiaXaxotatv  tn  o/^uaai  nQoaSt^aa&ai 
JDjoiv  Ttav  tjfitQirtov  tpywv  Tgi?  txaOTOv  tmf.^itv  : 
Htj  naQt^i^v  ;  Tt  S'tqt^a  ;  Ti  jiioi  dcor  ovx  irekta-^tj  ; 
Aq^afitvog  d'ano    nquxrov  imii&t.      Kai  fiirtntira 
JiiXa  fiiv  txTiQtjiag,  tni7r.Xr]aaio,  ^^QfjaTa  3t  Tionov. 
t  Mr.  Higgins  on  the  Celtic  Druids,  p.  52.     On  p.  45  of  which,  see  "  a  lamen- 
table example  in  the  case  of  Sir  William  Jones  himself,  of  the  power  of  religions 
bigotry  to  corrupt  the  mind  of  even  the  best  of  men."     The  moral  sensibilities  of 
this  great  man  could  better  abide  the  consciousness  of  the  most  wilful  and  scanda- 
lons  misrepresentation,  than  to  be  just  to  the  character  of  an  adversary.     Such  are 
the  triomohs  6f  the  Gospel ! 


244  CHARGES. 

great  Chinese  philosopher,  who  had  flourished  about  500 
years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  had  left  to  that  people, 
was  the  Golden  Rule  of  doing  unto  others  as  "  you 
would  thef  should  do  unto  you." 

This,  the  Therapeuts,  adopted  into  their  Moral  Gnomo- 
logue,  or  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  Demon  of  the  Diege- 
sis,  from  whence  it  passed  into  the  copies  or  epitomes  of 
the  Diegesis,  which  have  been  falsely  tiiken  for  the  orig- 
mal  compositions  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke. 

Depending,  as  we  necessarily  must,  on  a  translation, 
(for  who  that  had  to  learn  any  thing  else,  could  learn  the 
language  of  the  Chinese  ?)  I  follow  the  edition  by  Jose- 
phus  Tela,  reprinted  from  the  edition  of  1691;  and  colla- 
ting this  by  the  text  of  the  New  Testament,  the  reader 
will  see  that  not  only  the  idea  is  precisely  the  same,  but 
the  rhythmus,  manner,  and  manner  of  connection,  are 
precisely  the  same,  beyond  the  solution  of  any  hypothesis, 
but  that  the  latter  is  a  plagiarism. 

Confucius,  St.  Matthew, 

Maxim  24th.  Chapter  vi.  verse  12.       ' ; 

Do  to  another  what  you  would  Therefore,  all  things  whatso*- 
he  should  do  unto  you  ;  and  do  ever  ye  would  that  men  should 
not  unto  another  what  you  would  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to 
not  should  be  done  unto  you.  them  ;  for  this  is  the  law  and  the 
Thou  only  needest  this  law  prophets, 
alone  ;  It  is  the  foundation  and 
principle  of  all  the  rest. 

The  abridged  form  and  more  smoothly  constmcted  sen- 
tence, according  to  canons  of  criticism  already  laid  down,* 
demonstrates  the  later  composition,  consequently  the  pla^ 
giarism.  '   ;^!  ■» 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 

CHARGES  BROUGHT  AGAINST  CHRISTIANITY  BY  ITS  EARLY 
ADVERSARIES,  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN  MANNER  OP  ANSV7ER- 
ING    THOSE    CHARGES. 

After  having  fairly  considered  and  compared  the  striking 
features  of  resemblance  which  subsist  between  the  Pagan 
and  Christian  doctrines,  and  also   between  the  Pagan  and 

*  See  Canon  8,  p.  Ill,  of  this  Diegesis.  ,..  ^,;  ,', 


CHARGES.  245 

Christian  forms  of  worship,  and  given  due  weight  to  the 
admissions  which  Christian  divines  and  historians  have 
made  touching  that  resemblance ;  our  method  requires 
that  we  should  take  some  account  of  such  of  the  charges 
which  their  early  enemies  brought  against  them,  as  their 
fairness  has  transmitted,  or  their  inadvertency  has  suffered 
to  escape  and  come  down  to  posterity. 

We  can  never  lose  from  this  calculation,  the  plumb  dead 
weight  which  Christians  themselves  have  thrown  into  the 
adverse  scale,  by  those  arts  of  suppressing  facts,  stifling 
testimony,  preventing  the  coming-up  of  evidence,  persecu- 
ting witnesses,  and  destroying  or  perverting  the  documents 
that  were  from  time  to  time  adduced  against  them,  of 
which  they  stand  convicted  by  the  concurrent  testimony 
of  all  parties, "and  their  own  reiterated  avowals,  full  often 
themselves  "  glorying  in  their  shame,"  and  boasting  of 
having  promoted  the  cause  of  truth,  by  frauds  and  sophis- 
tications of  which  their  heathen  adversaries  would  have 
been  ashamed. 

Were  we  in  full  possession,  as  in  reason  and  fairness  we 
ought  to  have  been,  of  the  writings  of  Porphyry,  Celsus, 
Hierocles,  and  other  distinguished  and  conscientious  oppo- 
nents of  the  Christian  faith  ;  as  they  wrote  themselves, 
and  not  as  their  adversaries  were  pleased  to  write  for 
them,  suffering  them  only  to  seem  to  make  such  objections 
as  were  ridiculous  or  weak  in  themselves,  or  such  as 
Christian  writers  found  themselves  most  easily  able  to 
answer ;  the  probability  is,  that  the  whole  apparatus  of 
Christian  evidence  would  be  beaten  off  the  field  ;  and  we 
should  be  able  to  give  the  fullest  and  most  satisfactory  ex- 
planation of  those  apparent  ^defects  in  the  manner  by 
which  those  who  held  Christianity  to  be  an  imposture, 
ought  to  have  assailed  it^  which  cannot  be  ascribed  to  their 
deficiency  of  shrewdness,  or  insincerity  of  hostility. 

We  see  even  in  our  own  days,  and  the  author  of  this 
work  experiences  in  his  own  perspn,  in  the  endurance  of 
an  unjust  and  cruel  imprisonment,*  and  still  to  be  contin- 
ued bondage  of  five  years  after  the  term  of  that  imprison- 
ment shall  have  expired,  what  sort  of  justice  Christians 
would  be  likely  to  show  to  the  arguments  of  their  oppo- 
nents. Were  they  orators  whose  powers  of  declamation 
their  Christian  adversaries  must  have  despaired  to  cope 
with.''  Why,  their  persons  could  be  Oafc/imnize^i.  Were  they 

*  This  work  was  composed  in  Oakham  Gaol. 

22* 


246  CHARGES.  ■^' 

writers  whose  diligence  of  research ,  fidelity  of  statement, 
and  strength  of  argument,  could  not  be  equalled  ?  Why, 
their  writings  could  be  suppressed,  or  kept  back  as  much 
as  possible  from  public  knowledge  ;  and  then,  to  be  sure, 
their  Christian  adversaries,  in  their  guaranteed  security 
that  all  that  should  be  heard,  and  all  that  should  be  read, 
should  be  their  preachings  and  writings  only,  would  not 
only  represent  their  opponents  as  the  most  contemptible 
orators  and  weakest  reasoners  in  the  world,  but  could 
father  them  with  such  miserable  specimens  of  eloquence, 
and  such  jejune  and  feeble  objections,  as  Origen  would 
exhibit  as  the  composition  of  Celsus,  and  as  Eusebius  has 
invented  for  Porphyry.  It  was  never  to  be  endured  by 
Christians,  that  an  orator  who  opposed  their  faith  should  be 
believed  to  have  been  eloquent,  or  that  a  writer  who  con- 
futed their  opinions,  should  be  thought  to  be  reasonable. 


CHARGE    1. 

That  THE  Christian  Scriptures  were  plagiarisms 
FROM  previously  EXISTING  Pagan  Scriptures,  is  the  spe- 
cific and  particular  charge  which  the  early  opponents  of 
Christianity  ought  to  have  brought  against  it,  if  that  charge 
were  tenable.  The  apparent  not  bringing  forward  of  such  a 
charge  leaves  in  the  hands  of  the  advocates  of  Christianity, 
the  presumption  that  such  a  charge  was  not  tenable ;  and 
ergOy  that  the  Christian  Scriptures  were  the  original 
compositions  of  the  persons  to  whom  Christians  them- 
selves ascribed  them. 

the  answer. 

To  this,  which  is  the  pith  of  the  whole  argument,  it  is 
answered,  1st.  That  though  the  charge  had  been  tenable, 
it  could  not,  from  its  own  nature,  have  been  brought  for- 
ward, before  the  Christians  had  first  brought  forward  a 
pretence  that  they  were  in  possession  of  original  Scrip- 
tures, and  had  permitted  it  to  be  generally  known  what 
those  Scriptures  were.  But  that  pretence  was  not  made 
till  after  the  Christian  religion  had  been  preached  and  es- 
tablished, and  a  large  number  of  converts  already  made  * 

*  "  Lardner  shows  advantages  arising  from  a  late  publication  of  the  Gospels.  It 
was  first  requisite,  he  states,  that  the  religion  should  be  preached  and  established, 
and  a  large  number  of  converts  made.  The  apostles,  says  Eusebius,  spread  the 
Gospel  over  the  world  ;  nor  were  they  (at  the  finst)  much  concerned  to  write,  be- 


CHARGES.  247 

without  reference  to,  or  any  use  made,  or  even  the  pre- 
tended existence  of  any  Christian  writing-s  at  all,  nor  till 
after  the  period  when  St.  Paul  says  the  Gospel  had  already 
been  "  preached  to  every  creature  under  heaven."  * 

After  the  substance  of  the  matter  which  had  thus  at- 
tained extensive  prevalence  and  general  belief  before  it 
was  committed  to  writings  of  any  sort,  appeared  in  written 
documents,  it  is  not  only  not  likely  that  the  people  who 
had  been  already  "rooted  and  built  up  in  the  faith"  with- 
out any  service  or  help  of  such  writings,  should  have 
much  valued  or  sought  for  means  of  grace  that  they  had 
so  long  done  without  ;  but  it  is  absolutely  certain  that 
they  continued  to  do  without  them  ;  nor  was  it  at  any 
time  within  the  three  first  centuries,  that  the  general  com- 
munity of  Christians  were  permitted  to  know  what  the 
contents  of  their  Scriptures  were. 

And  2ndly.  When  the  time  had  arrived  that  the  charge 
of  plagiarism  against  the  Christian  Scriptures,  if  tenable, 
should  have  been  brought  forward,  the  priests,  in  whose 
hands  alone  the  Scriptures  were  to  be  found,  had  acquired 
such  tremendous  power  and  influence  as  to  procure,  by 
the  decrees  of  Constantino  and  Theodosius,  that  all  wri- 
tings of  Porphyry  and  others,  that  had  been  composed 
against  the  Christian  faith,  should  be  committed  to  the 
flames  ;  and  happy  was  the  writer  who  got  out  of  the  way 
time  enough  to  escape  the  fate  of  his  writings. 


CHARGE    Z. 

"  Among  the  various  calumnies  with  which  the  wor- 
shippers of  Christ  were  formerly  assailed,"  says  the  learn- 
ed Sebastian  Kortholt,t  "  the  first  place  is  justly  given  to 

ing  engaged  in  a  most  excellent  ministry,  exceeding  all  human  power." — Elsley's 
Annot.  vol.  1,  p.  11.     What  says  reason  ' 

*"//"  ye  continue  grounded  and  settled,  and  he  not  moved  away  from  the 
hope  of  the  Gospel,  which  ye  have  heard,  andwhich  was  preached  to  every 
creature  under  heaven,  ivhereof  I,  Paul,  am  made  a  deacon." — Col.  i.  23. 
Ok  eytvouTjv  eyiu  HavXog  Siaxovog. 

When  will  men  learn  to  see  with  their  own  eyes,  and  reason  with  their  own 
understandmgs  ? — 1.  This  Paul  owns  himself  a  deacon,  the  lowest  ecclesiastical 
grade  of  the  Tharapeutan  church.  2.  This  epistle  was  written  two  years  before 
any  one  of  our  gospels.  3.  The  gospel  of  which  it  speaks  had  been  extensively 
preached  and  fully  established  before  the  reign  of  Augustus  ! 

t  Kortholti  Paganus  Obtrectator,  Kiloni,  a.  d.  1698,  p.  1.  In  extracts  from 
this  work,  I  claim  the  liberty  of  giving  my  own  translation,  without  affixing  more 
than  the  note  of  chapter  and  page  from  the  original,  except  where  there  seems  a 
strength  in  the  origbal  which  the  rendering  might  be  thought  to  have  enhanced. 


248  CHARGES. 

the  charge  that  they  had  brought  in  new  and  unheard-of 
rites,  and  that  they  sought  to  contaminate  the  holy  purity 
of  the  rehgious  ceremonies  of  antiquity,  by  the  supersti- 
tion of  their  novelty." 

THE     ANSWER. 

From  this  charge  the  Christians  only  attempted  to  vin- 
dicate themselves,  by  proving  the  most  exact  sameness 
and  conformity  of  their  doctrines  and  tenets  to  the  purest 
and  most  respectable  forms  of  the  ancient  idolatry  :  a 
mode  of  argument  as  serviceable  to  their  cause,  then,  as  in 
all  inference  of  reason  it  is  fatal  now.  Who  would  expect, 
among  the  very  first  and  ablest  advocates  of  a  religion 
that  had  been  revealed  in  the  person  of  a  divine  prophet 
who  had  appeared  in  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire, 
under  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Tiberius,  such  admissions 
as  those  of  their  Justin  Martyr,  that  "  what  we  say  of 
our  Jesus  Christ  is  nothing  more  than  what  you  say 
of  those  whom  you  style  the  sons  of  Jove  ?  As  to  his 
being  born  of  a  virgin,  you  have  your  Perseus  to  balance 
that ;  as  to  his  being  crucified,  there's  Bacchus,  Hercules, 
Pollux  and  Castor,  to  account  for  that;  and  as  to  rising 
from  the  dead,  and  ascending  into  heaven,  why,  you 
know,  this  is  only  what  you  yourselves  ascribe  to  the 
souls  of  your  departed  emperors."*  What  short  of  an 
absolute  surrender  of  all  pretence  to  an  existence  dis- 
tinctive and  separate  from  Paganism,  is  that  never-to-be- 
forgotten,  never-to-be-overlooked,  and  I  am  sure  never- 
to-be-answered  capitulation  of  their  Mehto,  bishop  of 
Sardis,  in  which,  in  an  apology  delivered  to  the  emperor 
Marcus  Antoninus,  in  the  year  170,f  he  complains  of 
certain  annoyances  and  vexations  which  Christians  were 
at  that  time  subjected  to,  and  for  which  he  claims  redress 
from  the  justice  and  piety  of  that  emperor  :  first,  on  the 
score  that  none  of  his  ancestors  had  ever  persecuted  the 
professors  of  the  Christian  faith,  Nero  and  Domitian  only^ 
who  had  been  equally  hostile  to  their  subjects  of  all  per- 
suasions, having  been  disposed  to  bring  the  Christian 
doctrine  into  hatred  ;  and  even  their  decrees  had  been 
reversed,  and  their  rash  enterprises  rebuked,  by  the  godhj 
ancestors  of  Antoninus  himself."  An  absolute  demon- 
stration this,  that  all  the  stories  of  persecution  suffered 
by  Christians  on  the  score  of  their  religion  are  utterly 

*See  this  passage  in  its  place  and  relevancy,  in  the  Chapter  on  Justin  Martyr^ 
t  See  this  also,  under  the  head  Melito,  in  this  Diegesis. 


CHARGES.  249 

untrue.  And,  secondly,  the  good  bishop  claims  the  pa- 
tronage of  the  emperor  for  the  Christian  religion,  which 
he  csd\s  our  philosophy,  "on  account  of  its  high  antiquity, 
as  having  been  imported  from  countries  lying  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  Roman  empire,  in  the  reign  of  his  ancestor 
Augustus,  who  had  found  its  importation  ominous  of  good 
fortune  to  his  government."  An  absolute  demonstration 
this,  that  Christianity  did  not  originate  in  Judea,  which 
was  a  Roman  province,  but  really  was  an  exotic  oriental 
fable,  imported  about  that  .time  from  the  barbarians,  and 
mixed  up  with  the  infinitely  mongrel  modifications  of  Ro- 
man piety,  till  it  outgrew  the  vigour  of  the  stock  on  which 
it  had  been  engrafted,  and  so  came  to  give  its  own  char- 
acter entirely  to  the  whole  system. 

The  adoption  of  the  fabulous  Chrishna  of  the  Hindus 
per  conveyance  of  the  Egyptian  monks  into  the  Roman 
empire,  having  taken  place  in  or  about  the  reign  of  Augus- 
tus, gave  occasion  to  later  historians  to  pretend  that  Christ 
was  born  in  the  reign  of  Augustus  ;  and  to  all  that  confu- 
sion which  arises  from  the  adversaries  of  Christianity 
charging  it  with  novelty,  while  its  earliest  advocates  chal- 
lenge for  it  the  highest  and  most  remote  antiquity.* 


CHARGE    3. 

In  the  edict  of  Diocletian,  preserved  in  the  fragments  of 
Hermogenes,  the  Christians  are  called  Manichees.  It  suffi- 
ciently appears  that  the  Gentiles  in  general  confounded  the 
Christians  and  Manichees,  and  that  there  really  was  no 
difference,  or  appeared  to  be  none,  between  the  followers 
of  Christ  and  of  Manes.  Let  who  will  or  can,  determine 
the  curious  question,  whether  Manes  and  his  followers 
were  heretical  seceders  from  Christianity,  or  whether  those 
who  afterwards  acquired  the  name  of  Christians,  were  her- 
etics from  the  primitive  sect  of  Manichees.  The  admitted 
fact  of  the  existence  of  upwards  of  ninety  different  here- 
sies, or  manners  and  variations  of  the  telling  of  the  Gos- 
pel story,  within  the  three  first  centuries,  is  proof  demon- 
strative that  there  could  have  been  no  common  authority 
to  which  Christians  could  appeal,  and,  consequently,  no 
Scriptures  of  higher  claims  than  any  of  the  innumerable 

*  Kortholti  Paganus  Obtrectator,  ch.  1.  p.  5.  Pertinet  huic  quod  Gregorius 
Nazianzenus  affirmat,  Christianam  doctrinam  veterem  simul  et  novam  esse. — Ibi- 
dem, p.  10. 


350  CHARGES. 

apocryphal  versions,  wherefrom  to  collect  their  opinions,  op 
lohereby  to  decide  their  controversies.  It  is  admitted  by 
Mosheim,  that  the  more  intelligent  among  the  Christian 
people  in  the  third  century  had  been  taught,  that  true 
Christianity  as  it  was  inculcated  by  Jesus,  and  not  as  it 
was  afterwards  corrupted  by  his  disciples,  differed  in  few 
points  from  the  Pagan  religion,  properly  explained  and  re- 
stored to  its  primitive  purity  ;*  so  that  these  good  people 
very  conveniently  found  the  way  of  swimming  with  the 
tide,  and  were  converted  to  Christianity,  while  they  con- 
tinued as  staunch  Pagans  as  ever.  But  this,  of  course, 
could  be  viewed  by  a  modern  advocate  of  Christianity  in 
no  other  light  than  as  an  invention  of  the  enemy  ;  how- 
ever, it  was  neither  a  weak  one  in  itself,  nor  unsuccessful 
in  its  issue.  "  Many  were  ensnared,"  says  the  Christian 
historian,  "  by  the  absurd  attempts  of  these  insidious 
philosophers.  Some  were  induced  by  these  perfidious  strat- 
agems to  abandon  the  Christian  religion,  which  they  had 
embraced.  Others,  when  they  were  taught  to  believe 
that  Christianity  and  Paganism,  properly  understood,  were 
virtually  but  one  and  the  same  religion,  determined  to  re- 
main in  the  religion  of  their  ancestors,  and  in  the  worship 
of  the  gods  and  goddesses.  A  third  sort  were  led,  by 
these  comparisons  between  Christ  and  the  ancient  philoso- 
phers, to  form  to  themselves  a  motley  system  of  religion, 
composed  of  the  tenets  of  both  parties,  and  paid  divine 
honours  indiscriminately  to  Christ  and  to  Orpheus,  to 
ApoUonius,  and  the  other  philosophers  and  heroes,  whose 
names  had  acquired  celebrity  in  ancient  times." 


THE    DOCTRINE    OF    MANES    AND    HIS    HISTORY. 

Mani,  properly  so  called,  though  more  commonly  Manes 
or  Manichseus,  from  whom  the  most  important  Christian 
sect  that  ever  existed,  takes  its  designation,  was  by  birth 
a  Persian,  educated  amongst  the  Magi,  or  wise  men  of  the 
East,  and  himself  originally  one  of  that  order. 

The  ecclesiastical  historian  Socrates  gives  us  this  ac- 
count of  him  : — 

"Not  long  before  the  reign  of  Constantine,  there  sprang 
up  a  kind  of  heathenish  Christianity,   which    mingled  itself 

♦Mosheim,  vol.  1,  cent.  3,  chap.  2.  Collate  herewith  the  terms  of  compro- 
mise with  Paganism  offered  by  St.  Peter,  St.  Paul,  St.  Gregory,  and  other  holy 
popes. 


CHARGES.  251 

with  the  true  Christian  religion  ;  for  in  those  days  the  doc- 
trine of  Empedocles,  a  heathen  philosopher,  was  clandes- 
tinely introduced  into  Christianity.  One  ScythiamiSy  a 
Saracen,  had  married  a  captive  woman,  native  of  the 
upper  Thebais,  and  upon  her  account  he  lived  in  Eg^ypt. 
Having-  been  instructed  in  the  learning  of  the  Egyptians, 
he  introduced  the  doctrine  of  Empedocles  and  Pythagoras 
into  Christianity  ;  asserting  the  existence  of  two  natures, 
the  one  good,  the  other  evil,  as  Empedocles  did,  and  call- 
ing the  evil  nature  Mikos  (Discord),  and  the  good  nature 
Philia  (Friendship).  Buddas,  formerly  named Terebinthus, 
became  a  disciple  of  that  Scythianus ;  he  travelled  into 
Persia,  where  he  told  a  great  many  strange  stories  of  him- 
self,— as,  that  he  was  born  of  a  virgin,  and  brought  up  in 
the  mountains.  Afterwards  he  wrote  four  books  :  one  of 
which  was  entitled  the  Mysteries ;  another  the  Gospel  ;  a 
third  Thesaurus,  or  the  Treasury  ;  the  fourth  a  Summary. 
He  pretended  a  power  to  work  miracles  ;  but  on  one  occa- 
sion, being  on  a  high  tower,  the  Devil  threw  him  down,  so 
that  he  broke  his  neck  and  died  miserably.*  The  woman 
at  whose  house  he  had  resided  buried  him,  and  succeeding 
to  the  possesvsion  of  his  property,  bought  a  boy  of  seven 
years  old,  whose  name  was  Cubricus.  This  youth  she 
adopted  ;  and  after  having  given  him  his  freedom,  and  a 
good  education,  she  bequeathed  him  all  the  estate  she  had 
derived  from  Terebinthus,  and  the  books  which  he  had 
written  according  to  the  instructions  of  Scythianus  his 
ma^er.  With  these  possessions  and  advantages,  upon 
the  death  of  his  patroness,  Cubricus  went  into  Persia, 
and  changed  his  name  into  Manes,  and  there  gave  out  the 
books  which  Terebinthus  had  thus  composed,  under  the 
direction  of  his  master  Scythianus,  as  his  own  original 
works.  These  books  bore  a  show  and  colouring  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  were  in  reality  heathenish  ;  for  the  impious 
Manes  directs  the  worship  of  many  gods,  teaches  that  the 
Sun  ought  to  be  adored.  He  introduces  the  doctrine  of 
fatal  necessity,  and  denies  the  free  agency  of  man.  He 
openly  teaches  the  transmigration  of  souls,!  as  held  by  Py- 

*  The  reader,  who  may  find  this  entire  passage  in  Dr.  Lardner's  Credibility, 
vol.  2,  p.  141,  will  observe  my  variations  from  it.  I  take  this  liberty  only  upon 
the  grounds  of  preference  for  my  own  translation  of  the  original  itself,  which  I  have 
on  my  table,  and  with  which  I  compare  the  text  of  Lardner  through  every  sen- 
tence. 

t  The  Pythagorean  doctrines  are  still  traceable  in  the  Christian  Scriptures  :  the 
Christ  of  St  John's  Gospel  is  evidently  a  Fythagoreau  philofiopher.     Ye  must  be 


352  CHARGES. 

thasroras,  Empedocles,  and  the  Eg-j'ptians.  He  denies  that 
Christ  was  ever  really  born,  or  had  real  human  flesh,  but 
asserts  that  he  was  a  mere  phantom.  He  rejects  the  law 
and  the  prophets,  and  calls  himself  the  Paraclete  or  Com- 
forter: All  which  thing's  are  far  from  the  true  and  rig-ht 
faith  of  the  church  of  God.  In  his  epistles  he  was  not 
ashamed  to  entitle  himself  an  apostle.  At  length  his 
abominations  met  with  their  merited  punishment." 

"  The  son  of  the  king  of  Persia  happening  to  have  fallen 
into  dangerous  illness,  his  father,  having  both  heard  of 
Manichseus,  and  believing-  his  miracles  to  be  true,  sent  for 
him  as  an  apostle,  and  believed  that  his  son  would  by  his 
means  be  restored.  Upon  his  arrival  he  takes  the  king's 
son  in  hand,  after  the  fashian  of  a  conjuror.*  But  the  king 
having  seen  that  the  boy  died  under  his  hands,  had  him 
imprisoned,  intending  to  put  him  to  death  ;  but  he  made 
his  escape,  and  came  into  Mesopotamia.  The  king  of  Per- 
sia, hearing  that  he  was  in  those  parts,  sent  after  him, 
and,  upon  his  second  apprehension,  had  him  flayed  alive." 
— This  king  of  Persia  was  Varanes  the  First. 

Notwithstanding  the  calumnies  heaped  on  Manes,  Dr. 
Lardner  has  shown  that  he  was,  in  the  best  and  strictest 
acceptation  of  the  term,  a  sincere  Christian,  and  has  adduced 
many  passages  from  his  writings  equally  honourable  to  his 
understanding  and  to  his  heart.  Not  only  the  learned 
Faustus,f  Bishop  of  Melevi  in  Africa,  whose  tremendous 
charge  against  the  authenticity  of  our  canonical  Gospels 
we  have  elsewhere  given  ;  but  others,  by  far  the  most 
learned,  intelligent,  and  virtuous  men  that  ever  professed 
and  called  themselves  Christians,  were  Manichseans,  and 
among  these  was  the  renowned  St.  Augustin  himself,  till 
he  found  that  higher  distinctions  and  better  emoluments 
were  to  be  gained  by  joining  the  stronger  party.  Where- 
upon he  left  the  poor  presbytery  of  the  Manichsean  church, 
to  become  the  orthodox  bishop  of  Hippo  Regius  :  and  from 
thenceforth,  with  the  zeal  that  always  characterizes  a 
turncoat  he  set  himself  to  heap  all  the  calumnies  and  mis- 
representations he  possibly  could  upon  that  purer  and 
more  primitive  Christianity  which  he  had  deserted ;    awk- 

born  again  (John  iii.),  is  the  characteristic  aphorism  of  the  Pythagorean  school. 
Seethe  Chapter  xxxiii.  entitled  Pythagoras,  in  this  Diegesis,  p.  217. 

*  Mira  T«  (nnr'.aatH  a);y]vuToc  ly/itQi^iTai  Tor,  &C.  Dr.  Lardner  cuts  me  this 
knot  with  a  skip  in  his  rendering. 

t  raustiis  flourished  about  A.  d.  384  at  the  latest,  and  had  been  known  to 
Augustin  before  that  wily  and  mendacious  saint  apostatized  from  Manicheism  to 
orthodoxy. 


CHARGES.  253 

wardly  enough  confessing",  that  he  himself  should  never 
have  believed  the  Gospel,  unless  the  authority  of  the 
church  had  induced  him*  {paid  him)  to  do  so.  There  are, 
I  fear,  more  than  nineteen  out  of  any  twenty  bishops  that 
could  be  named,  who  owe  their  orthodoxy  at  this  day  to 
the  same  sort  of  inducement. 


DEMONSTRATION  THAT    NO    SUCH    PERSON    AS    JESUS    CHRIST 
EVER    EXISTED. 

There  were  two  very  different  opinions  concerning 
Christ  very  early  among  Christians.  Some,  as  Augustin 
says,f  believed  Christ  to  be  God,  and  denied  him  to  be 
man  ;  others  believed  he  was  a  man,  and  denied  him  to 
be  God.  The  former  was  the  opinion  of  the  Manichees, 
and  of  many  others  before  them  ;  of  others  so  early,  in- 
deed, and  so  certainly,  that  Cotelerius,  in  a  note  on  Igna- 
tius's  Epistle  to  the  Trallians,  assures  us  that  it  would  be 
as  absurd  as  to  question  that  the  sun  shone  at  mid-day,  I 
to  deny  that  the  doctrine  that  taught  that  Christ's  body 
was  a  phantom  only,  and  that  no  such  person  as  Jesus 
Christ  had  ever  any  corporeal  existence,  was  held  in  the 
time  of  the  apostles  themselves. §  Ignatius,  the  apostolic 
Father,  expressly  censures  this  opinion,  as  having  gained 
ground  even  before  his  time.  "  If,  as  some  who  are  athe- 
ists— that  is,  unbelievers — say,  that  he  only  suffered  in 
appearance,  II — an  expression  which,  as  Cotelerius  ob- 
serves, plainly  shows  the  early  rise  of  this  doctrine. 
And  from  the  apostolic  age  downwards,  in  a  never  inter- 
rupted succession,  but  never  so  strongly  and  emphatically 
as  in  the  most  primitive  times,  was  the  existence  of 
Christ  as  a  man  most  strenuously  denied.  So  that  though 
nothing  is  so  convenient  to  some  persons  as  to  assume 
airs  of  contempt,  and  to  cry  out  that  those  who  deny  that 

*  Ego  evangelio  nequa  quam  crediderim  nisi  ecclesiae  auctoritas  me  commoveiet. 
August,  ut  citat  Michaelis. 

t  Ait  enim  Christus  Deus  est  tantam,  omnino  hominis  nihil  habens.  Hoc  Mani- 
cheei  dicunt.  Photiani,  homo  tantum.  Manichei,  Deus  tantum. — August.  Serm. 
i37,  c.  12. 

*  i  As  absurd  as  to  question  that  the  sun  shone,  ^c.  Solem  negaret  meridie 
lucere,  qui  Docetas,  seu  phantasiastas  haereticos  temporibus  apostoloram  inficiaretur 
erupisse.— Co*e/.  ad  Ign.  Ep.  ad  Trail,  c.  10. 

§  Apostolis  adhuc  in  seculo  superstitibus,  adhuc  apud  Judaeam  Christi  sanguine 
recenti,  phantasma  Domini  corpus  asserebatur. — Hieron.  adv.  Lucif.  T.  4,  p. 
304. 

II  El  St  (aOTttq  rivts  a-9toi,  ovrsg,  rovr'tariv  aniaroi,  ^.tyovaiv  to  Soxeiv  ntnov- 
#«>'oi  avrov  x.  r.  A. — Ign.  ad  Trail,  c.  10,  et  passim. 


254  CHARGES. 

such  a  person  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ever  existed,  are  ut- 
terly unworthy  of  bemgf  answered,  and  would  fly  in  the 
face  of  all  historical  evidence,  the  fact  of  the  case  is,  that 
the  being  of  no  other  individual  mentioned  in  history  ever 
laboured  under  such  a  deficiency  of  evidence  as  to  its  re- 
ality, or  was  ever  overset  by  a  thousandth  part  of  the 
weight  of  proof  positive^  that  it  was  a  creation  of  imagina- 
tion only. 

To  the  question,  then,  On  what  grounds  do  you  deny 
that  such  a  person  as  Jesus  Christ  existed  as  a  man  ?  the 
proper  answer  is. 

Because  his  existence  as  a  man  has,  from  the  earliest 
day  on  which  it  can  be  shown  to  have  been  asserted, 
been  as  earnestly  and  strenuously  denied,  and  that,  not 
by  enemies  of  the  Christian  name,*  or  unbelievers  of  the 
Christian  faith,  but  by  the  most  intelligent,  most  learned, 
most  sincere  of  the  Christian  name,  who  ever  left  the 
world  proofs  of  their  intelligence  and  learning  in  their 
writings,  and  of  their  sincerity  in  their  sufferings  ; 

And  because  the  existence  of  no  individual  of  the  hu- 
man race,  that  was  real  and  positive,  was  ever,  by  a  like 
conflict  of  jarring-  evidence,  rendered  equivocal  and  uncer- 
tain. 


CHARGE    4. 

It  was  distinctly  charged  against  the  early  preachers  of 
Christianity,  that  they  had  adopted  and  transferred  to 
their  own  use  the  materials  they  found  prepared  to  their 
hands,  in  the  writings  of  the  ancient  poets  and  philoso- 
phers ;  and  by  giving  a  very  slight  turn  to  the  matter, 
and  a  mere  change  of  names,  had  vamped  up  a  patchwork 
of  mythology  and  ethics,  a  mixture  of  the  Oriental  Gnos- 
ticism and  the  Greek  Philosophy,  into  a  system  which 
they  were  for  foisting  upon  the  world  as  a  matter  of  a 
divine  revelation  that  had  been  especially  revealed  to 
themselves.  "All  these  figments  of  crack-brained  opin- 
iatry  and  silly  solaces  played  off*  in  the  sweetness  of  song 
by  deceitful  poets,  by  you  too  credulous  creatures,  have 
been  shamefully  reformed  and  made  over  to  your  own 
God."*  Such  is  the  objection  of  Coecilius,  in  the  Octa- 
vius  of  Minucius  Felix,  written  in  dialogue,  about  the 

♦  Omnia  ista  figmenta  malesanse  opinionis,  et  inepta  solatia,  a  poetis  fallacibua, 
in  dulcedine  carminis  iusa,  a  vobis  nimiuni  credulia  in  Deum  vestrum,  turpiter  re- 
formata  sunt. — Minucius  Felix  in  Jlpol. 


CHARGES.  255 

year  211.  A  charge  answered  by  admission,  rather 
than  denial,  and  corroborated  by  the  never-to-be-forgotten 
fact,  that  the  Egyptian  Therapeuts  in  their  university  of 
Alexandria,  where  first  Christianity  gained  an  establish- 
ment, were  jjrofessedly  followers  and  maintainers  of  the  Ec- 
lectic philosophy,  which  consisted  in  nothing  else  but  this 
very  overt  and  avowed  practice  of  bringing  together 
whatever  they  held  to  be  useful  and  good  in  all  other  sys- 
tems ;  and  thus,  as  they  pretended,  concentrating  all  the 
rays  of  truth  that  were  scattered  through  the  world  into 
the  common  centre  of  their  own  system.  This  is  fully  ad- 
mitted by  Lactantius,  Arnobius,"  Clemens  Alexandrinus, 
and  Origen ;  and  denied  by  none  who  have  ventured  fear- 
lessly to  investigate  the  real  origin  of  Christianity. 


CHARGE    5. 

Porphyry,*  whose  very  name  is  aconite  to  Christian  in- 
tolerance, objects  against  Origen,  that,  being  really  a  Pa- 
gan, and  brought  up  in  the  schools  of  the  Gentiles,  he  had, 
to  serve  his  own  ambitious  purposes,  contrived  to  turn  the 
whole  Pagan  system,  which  he  had  first  egregiously  cor- 
rupted, into  the  new-fangled  theology  of  Christians. 


charge  6. 

Celsus,  in  so  much  of  his  work  concerning  the  "  true 
Logos"  as  Origen  has  thought  proper  to  suffer  posterity  to 
become  acquainted  with,  charges  the  Christians  with  a  re- 
coinage  of  the  misunderstood  doctrine  of  the  ancient  Logos. f 

Charges  thus  affecting  the  character  of  Origen,  the  great 
pillar  of  the  Christian  church,  cannot  fall  innocent  of 
wound  on  Christianity  itself.  Origen  is  the  very  first  of  all 
the  fathers  who  has  presented  Us  with  a  catalogue  of  the 
books  contained  in  the  New  Testament.  He  was  the 
most  laborious  of  all  writers  ;  and  his  authoritative  pen 
was  alone  competent  to  produce  every  iota  of  variation 
which  existed  between  the  old  Pagan  legends  of  the 
Egyptian   Therapeuts    and    that  new   version   of  them 

*  Porph  yry. — ^Theodoret  calls  him  AanovSoq  t]^ia  moli^uoi;,  and  O  nawmv  r,fnv 
tj(&iarvg.     Augustin  calls  him  "  Christianorum  acerrimus  inimicus." 
t  Quasi  refingerent — Ta  roy  TraAatot;  loyov  naqaxovOfiaru. — Lib.  3. 


256  CHARGES. 

which  first  received  from  him  the   designation  of  the  J^ew 
Testament.^ 


ADMISSIONS    OF    BISHOP    HERBERT    MARSH. 

Bishop  Marsh,  in  his  Michaehs,  the  highest  authority 
we  could  possibly  appeal  to  on  this  subject,f  admits,  that 
"  it  is  a  certain  fact,  that  several  readings  in  our  common 
printed  text  are  nothing  more  than  alterations  made  by 
Origen,  whose  authority  was  so  great  in  the  Christian 
church,  that  emendations  which  he  proposed,  though,  as 
he  himself  acknowledged,  they  were  supported  by  the  ev- 
idence of  no  manuscript,  were  very  generally  received." | 
The  reader  will  do  himself  the  justice  to  recollect,  that 
Origen  lived  and  wrote  in  the  third  century,  and  that  "no 
manuscript  of  the  New  Testament  now  extant  is  prior  to 
the  sixth  century ;  and,  what  is  to  be  lamented,  various 
readings  which,  as  appears  from  the  quotations  of  the  Fa- 
thers, were  in  the  text  of  the  Greek  Testament,  are  to  be 
found  in  none  of  the  manuscripts  which  are  at  present  re- 
maining." § 


ADMISSIONS,    TO    THE  SAME  EFFECT,  OF   THE  EARLY  FATHERS. 

To  charges  of  such  pregnant  inference,  we  find  our 
Christian  Fathers,  in  like  manner,  making  answers  that 
only  serve  to  authenticate  those  charges  ;  to  demonstrate 
that  they  were  founded  in  truth  and  not  in  malice  ;  and 
that,  answered  as  they  were,  and  as  any  thing  may  be, 
they  were  utterly  irrefragible. 

"  You  observe  the  philosophers,"  says  Minucius  Felix^  "  to 
have  maintained  precisely  the  same  things  as  we  Chris- 
tians, but  not  so  is  it  on  account  of  our  having  copied  from 
them,  but  because  they,  from  the  divine  preachings  of  the 
prophets,  have  imitated  the  shadow  of  truth  interpolated  : 
thus  the  more  illustrious  of  their  wise  men,  Pythagoras 
first,  and  especially  Plato,  with  a  corrupted  and  half-faith 

*  See  the  chapter  on  Qrigen. 

t  "  The  Introduction  to  the  New  Testameat  by  Michaelis,  late  professor  at  Got- 
tingen,  as  translated  by  Marsh,  is  the  standard  work,  comprehending  all  that  is 
important  on  the  subject." — The  learned  Bishop  of  Llandaff,  quoted  in  Els- 
ley's  Annotations  on  the  Gospels,  vol.  1.  (the  introd.),  p.  xxvi. 

i  Michaelifi's  Introduction  to  New  Test.,  by  Bishop  Marsh,  vol.  2,  p.  368. 

§  Ibid.  vol.  2,  p.  160. 


CHARGES.  1  257 

have  handed  down  the  doctrine  of  regeneration."*  And 
Lactantius,  after  admitting  the  truth  of  the  story,  that 
man  had  been  made  by  Prometheus  out  of  clay, — adds, 
that  the  poets  had  not  touched  so  much  as  a  letter  of 
divine  truth;  but  those  things  which  had  been  handed 
down  in  the  vaticination  of  the  prophets,  they  collected 
from  fables  and  obscure  opinion,  and  having  taken  suffi- 
cient care  purposely  to  deprave  and  corrupt  them,  in  that 
wilfully  depraved  and  corrupted  state  they  made  them  the 
subjects  of  their  poems. f 

Tertullian  calls  the  philosophers  of  the  Gentiles  the 
thieves,  the  interpolators,  and  the  adulterators  of  divine 
truth;  alleges,  that  "  from  a  design  of  curiosity  they  put 
our  doctrines  into  their  works,  not  sufficiently  believing 
them  to  be  divine  to  be  restrained  from  interpolating  them, 
and  that  they  mixed  that  which  was  uncertain  with  what 
they  found  certain. "| 

Eusebius  pleads,  that  the  Devil,  being  a  very  notorious 
thief,  stole  the  Christian  doctrines,  and  carried  them  over 
for  his  friends,  the  Pagan  philosophers  and  poets,  to  make 
fun  of.§ 

Theodoret  accuses  Plato  especially,  with  having  pur- 
posely mixed  muddy  and  earthy  filth  with  the  pure  foun- 
tain from  which  he  drew  the  arguments  of  his  theology. || 

Thus,  if  we  may  believe  Eusebius,  the  beautiful  fable 
of  Ovid's  Metamorphosis,  describing  Phaeton  falling  from 
the  chariot  of  his  father,  the  Sun,  was  nothing  more  than 
a  wicked  corruption  of  the  unquestionable  truth  of  the 
prophet  Elijah  having  been  caught  up  to  heaven,  as 
described  (2  Kings  ii.),  ^^  Behold  there  appeared  a  chariot  of 
fire,  and  horses  of  fire,  and  Elijah  went  up  by  a  xohirhoind 
into  heaven;''''  the  heathens  being  so  ignorant  as  to  con- 
found the  name  Helias  with  Helios,  the  Greek  word  for 
the  Sun. 

The  almost  droll  Justin  Martyr  gives  us  a  most  satis- 
factory explanation  of  the  whole  matter;  that  "  it  having 
reached  the  Devil's  ears  that  the  prophets  had  foretold 
that  Christ  would  come  for  the  purpose  of  tormenting  the 

*  Quoted  in  Paganus  Obtrectator,  p.  34. 

t  Lactantii  Instit.  lib.  3,  cap.  10.  Sic  etiam  conditionem  renascendi,  sapien- 
tium  clariores,  Pythagoras  primus,  et  praecipuus  Plato,  corrupta  et  dimidiata  fide 
tradiderunt. — Min.  Felix. 

t  Tertul.  Apolog.  cap.  46,  47. 

§  K^cnri}?  yoo  o  JiaSoXog  xai  ra  ij/ntriqa  fXipsqofivSwv  nQog  tovs  tavTov  vtto 
qiyirag. — Euseb.  procudubio  sed  perdidi  locvm. 

II  JF|  1^5  oi/TOs  Xafiwv  T»)?  ^toXoyiag  ra?  <x(poQitag  TO  iXvuStg  xai  ytco^if  avtfii^ev. 
— ITieodoritus  Therapeut.  libra  2,  de  Platone  loquens. 

23* 


258  CHARGES. 

wicked  in  fire,  he  set  the  heathen  poets  to  bring  forward  a 
great  many  who  should  be  called  (and  were  called)  sons 
of  Jove.  The  Devil  laying  his  scheme  in  this,  to  get  men 
to  imagine  that  the  true  history  of  Christ  was  of  the  same 
character  as  those  prodigious  fables  and  poetic  stories."* 

I  render  from  the  beautiful  Greek  of  Theodoret,  a  pas- 
sage of  considerable  elegance,  in  which  the  reader  will 
trace  the  rising  dignity  of  style,  superior  manner,  and  cul- 
tivated taste  with  which  an  historian  of  the  fourth  century 
could  improve  and  varnish  the  awkward  sophistry  of  the 
honester  Christian  Father  of  the  second: — 

"  But  if  the  adversaries  of  truth  (our  Pagan  opponents) 
so  very  much  admired  the  truth,  as  to  adorn  their  own 
writings  even  with  the  smallest  portions  they  could  pillage 
from  it,  and  these,  though  mixed  with  much  falsehood, 
yet  dimmed  not  their  proper  beauty,  but  shone  like  pearls 
resplendent  through  the  squalors  in  which  they  lay,  so 
that,  according  to  the  evangelical  doctrine,  the  light 
shone  in  the  darkness,  and  by  the  darkness  itself  was  not 
concealed;  we  may  easily  understand  how  lovely  and  ad- 
mirable the  divine  doctrines  must  be,  secerned  from  false- 
hood, for  so  differs  the  gem  in  its  rough  matrix,  from  what 
it  is  when  seen  resplendent  in  a  diadem,  "f 

CHARGE    7. 

The  Emperor  Julian — who,  with  all  his  imperfections 
on  his  head,  was  an  ornament  to  human  nature,  and  can 
by  no  means  be  conceived  to  have  wanted  any  possible 
means  of  information  on  the  subject — objects  against  the 
claims  of  Christianity,  what  a  thousand  testimonies  con- 
firm, that  it  was  a  mixture  of  the  Jewish  superstition  and 
Greek  philosophy,  so  as  to  incorporate  the  Atheism  of  the 
one  with  the  loose  and  dissolute  manner  of  living  of  the 
other.     "  If  any  one,"  says  he,  "  should  wish  to  know  the 

*  Aitovcavrti  yaq  7ropoyevi;(TO)Ufrov  rov  jfpioTov,  xat  xoXa^tjaontvovi  iia  nvqo^ 
rovg  artpttf,  TtQot^alXovTo  noXXovg  >lt/x9-jjvai  Xiyofitiovc:  viovg  tuj  dit,  fo^i^ovxrff 
dvvfiata-&ai  ivtgytoai  rtQaroXoyiav  y]yriaao-9ai  rovg  ay-9Qtanovg  to  rov  x^iarov,  xai 
ofioimg  rotg  vno  rwv  noiijriov  ktx^f'Oi- — Justini.  Apolog.  2. 

+  El  ie  xai  01  rtjg  aXyj^ttag  orTi/ra^ot  outco  xo^iStj  Sav^iatovai  tjj*'  aXij>9tiav,  us 
xai  |?Qa;f«(Ti  ^oQiotg  txtiSev  atavXrifietotg  SiaxaXXvvttv  ra  otxtia  ^vx;(^auftaTa,  xot 
TToJlAw  ifJevSti  ravra  ftiyvv^ieva  ^j;  afipkvitv  ro  0(feTtQov  xaXiog,  aXla  xav  xoTt^ia 
xai  (fo()vr(a  xtifievovg  rovg  ^lopya^iirac  aatQanreiv  f.iav,  xai  xara  Tiyv  tvayytiixijv 
diSaoxaXiav ,  ro  (flag,  ev  T)j  axoria  ipaiviiv,  xai  vno  ri]g  tixoriac,  fitj  xovnrtad-ai 
\vviinv  tvnirtg,  onwg  loriv  ahiQaora  xai  attayacfra  ra  S^tia  fta-d-tifiara  rov  xf/tv- 
dovg  xixiDQiducva  noXXriv  yuQ  Srinov  Siaifio^av  f/ti  ^tapa^irijg  tv  ^aQ^vQa)  xttfiivef 
xai  »v  diadrjinari  kafinwv, — Theodoret.  Tlierapeut.  libro  2. 


CHARGES.  259 

truth  with  respect  to  you  Christians,  he  will  find  your  im- 
piety to  be  made  up  partly  of  the  Jewish  audacity,  and 
partly  of  the  indifference  and  confusion  of  the  Gentiles, 
and  that  ye  have  put  together,  not  the  best,  but  the  worst 
characteristics  of  them  both."* 

The  answer  to  which  charge,  on  the  part  of  the  advo- 
cates of  Christianity,  was,  that  they  neither  took  them  to 
be  gods  whom  the  Gentiles  considered  to  be  such,  and  so 
were  not  assimilated  to  the  Gentiles;  nor  did  they  respect 
the  deisidemony  of  the  Jews,  and  so  were  not  adherents 
to  Judaism.  Nor  was  it  a  small  matter  of  triumph  to  their 
cause,  to  contrast  the  apparent  contrariety  of  charges  that 
were  alleged  against  them,  in  that  as  Julian  accused  them 
of  adopting  the  loorst  parts  of  Gentilism,  Celsus  had  ac- 
cused them  of  selecting  the  best  parts. 

THE    CHARGES    OF    CELSUS. 

It  is  never  to  be  forgotten,  that  the  charges  of  Celsus 
stand  only  in  the  language  in  which  Origen  has  been 
pleased  to  invest  them;  nor  is  it  any  very  monstrous 
phenomenon  that  such  wholly  different  characters  as  Julian 
and  Celsus  were,  should  either  of  them,  with  equal  con- 
scientiousness, have  esteemed  those  self  same  things  the 
best,  which  the  other  considered  the  worst  parts  of  Gen- 
tilism. 

Celsus,  an  Epicurean  philosopher,  might  very  naturally 
think  that  an  impostor  acted  with  sound  policy  in  giving 
to  his  new-fangled  system  all  the  advantages  it  could  de- 
rive from  the  closest  convenient  conformity  to  the  Epicu- 
rean carelessness  of  living,  and  indulgence  in  innocent, 
or  even  in  perhaps  not  quite  innocent  pleasures;  while 
Julian,  all  whose  virtues  were  of  the  severest  and  most 
rigid  self-restraint,  looked  with  horror  on  the  license  which 
the  doctrines  of  the  apostolic  chief  of  sinners  had  seemed 
to  countenance  in  the  lives  and  manners  of  the  Christians. 
The  charge  of  the  Emperor  Julian  is  in  striking  coinci- 
dence of  verisimilitude  with  the  apparent  fact  of  the  case, 
that  Paul  of  Tarsus,  who,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Colossians, 
calls  himself  a  deacon  of  the  Gospel, f  and  who  could  have 
stood  in  that  humble  grade,  only  as  a  servant  and  mis- 

*  EiTig  VTCtQ  Vfiwv  tSiXoi  oxoniiv  tvQrjtfti  T>;v  vuiTenav  oac(ittav  txrt  Tr;c  lov^ai- 
Xjy?  ToAitjj?  xai  T»/;  nuQa  Toi?  iSrtaiv  adtatpoQiav  xai  ;fv5aioTi;Toc  ovyzsfjutyjjr,  e| 
OfKpoiv  yaq  ovTi  to  xaAiKTrcov  aXXa  to  /sigov  eXxvoavref  rca^vwriv  xaxtov  tiQyaaaa&i, 
—Julian  apud  Cyrill,  lib.  2. 

t  That  is  in  the  Greek  text. 


260  CHRISTIAN    EVIDENCES. 

sionary  from  the  Therapeutan  college;  schismatised  from 
the  church,  and  set  up  in  trade  for  himself.  He  opposed 
the  ascetic  discipline  in  which  he  had  been  trained,  and 
thus  drew  to  his  party  that  large  majority  of  ignoramuses 
which  in  all  ages  and  countries  are  eager  to  embrace  every 
part  of  superstition  but  its  mortifications  and  restraints. 
There  were  innumerable  other  charges  brought  against  the 
early  Christians,  which,  as  they  impinge  on  their  moral 
character  only,  and  might  be  either  true  or  false  without 
materially  affecting  the  evidences  of  the  religion  they  pro- 
fessed, lie  beyond  the  scope  of  this  Diegesis.  Their 
amount  in  evidence  is,  that  they  sustain  the  fact,  that 
whatever  the  principles  and  conduct  of  Christians  may  be 
supposed  to  have  been,  they  were  never  such  as  to  con- 
quer the  prejudices  or  to  conciliate  the  affections  of  their 
fellow  men.  Tacitus,  Suetonius,  and  Pliny  have  spoken 
of  them  in  the  most  disparaging  terms;  and  though  it 
might  be  that  those  really  wise  and  good  men  were  unfair- 
ly prejudiced,  yet  it  must  cost  any  man  who  is  not  preju- 
diced himself,  an  effort  to  think  so. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

CHRISTIAN    EVIDENCES    ADDUCED     FROM     CHRISTIAN 
WRITINGS. 

The  New  Testament  is  in  every  one's  hands:  the  claims 
of  the  four  gospels  therein  contained  we  have  already 
considered. 

The  thirteen  epistles,  purporting  to  have  been  written 
by  an  early  convert  to  Christianity,  wKo  was  before  a  blas- 
phemer^ a  persecutor,  and  injurious;*  the  anonymous  epistle 
to  the  Hebrews;  the  one  of  James;  one  of  Jude;  two  of 
Peter;  three  of  John:  and  the  Apocalypse,  or  Revelation 
of  St.  John  the  Divine ;  though  all  of  them,  except  the 
Apocalypse,  are  admitted  to  have  been  written  before 
any  one  of  the  four  gospels;  are  entirely  without  date, 
and  will  read  as  well  to  an  understanding  or  supposition 
of  their  having  been  written  five  or  six  hundred,  or 
even  a  thousand  years,  either  earlier  or  later  than  the 
period  to  which   they  are   usually  assigned.     Certain  it 

*  1  Tim.  i.  13. 


CHRISTIAN    EVIDENCES.  261 

is,  that  they  contain  not  a  single  phrase  of  a  nature  or 
significancy  to  fix  with  any  satisfactory  probability  the 
time  when  they  were  written;  but  from  beginning  to  end 
they  proceed  on  the  recognition  of  an  existing  church 
government  and  an  established  ecclesiastical  polity  which, 
on  the  supposition  of  its  origination  in  events  that  hap- 
pened later  than  the  time  of  Augustus,  must  outrage  all 
our  knowledge  of  history,  and  all  common  sense,  to  be 
reconciled  with  the  supposition  of  their  having  been  writ- 
ten by  the  persons  to  whom  they  are  ascribed:  as  'tis 
certain  that  no  such  state  of  church  government,  that  could 
be  properly  called  Christian,  existed  or  could  have  existed 
among  the  followers  of  a  religion  which  had  originated  in 
the  age  of  Augustus,  or  among  any  persons  who  had  been 
his  contemporaries. 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  evidently  a  broken  narra- 
tive, and  gives  us  no  account  whatever  of  what  became 
of  the  immediate  disciples  of  Christ,  or  how  or  with  what 
success  they  executed  the  important  commission  they  had 
received  from  their  divine  master;  save,  that  Judas  the 
traitor  is  said  to  have  come  to  a  violent  death,  as  a  judg- 
ment of  God  upon  his  perfidy;  and  that  Peter  and  John 
were  imprisoned  as  impostors,  after  having  received  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  been  endued  with  the  gift  of  speaking  all 
the  languages  of  the  earth  (a  miracle  which  no  rational 
being  on  earth  believes) ;  and  that  James  was  put  to  death 
by  Herod. 

The  last  account  we  have  of  Peter  in  the  sacred  histo- 
ry, requires  us  to  believe,  that  after  having  been  delivered 
from  prison  by  the  intervention  of  an  angel,  his  chains 
falling  oflf,  and  the  ponderous  iron  gate  opening  of  his  own 
accord,  "  he  went  down  from  Judea  to  CsBsarea,  and  there 
abode."* 

The  last-  we  learn  of  Paul  is,  that  "  Paul  dwelt  two 
whole  years  in  his  own  hired  house,  and  received  all  that 
came  into  him;  preaching  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  teach- 
ing those  things  which  concern  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
with  all  confidence,  no  man  forbidding  him." 

The  evident  air  and  aim  of  this  account,  as  far  as  it 
goes,  is  palpably  incompatible  with  any  notion  of  the 
apostles  having  suffered  martyrdom;  it  rather  seems  to 
make  an  ostentation  of  their  prodigious  success,  and  their 
perfect  prosperity  and  security,  and  that  too  in  Rome,  in 

*  Acts  xii.  19. 


262  CHRISTIAN   EVIDENCES. 

the  immediate  neighbourhood,  and  under  the  government 
of  the  tyrant  Nero:  while  the  insinuation  at  least  with 
respect  to  the  melancholy  end  of  Judas,  is,  that  the  apos- 
tles themselves  would  have  considered  martyrdom  as  dis- 
honourable to  their  religion,  and  their  being  put  to  violent 
and  cruel  deaths,  an  indication  of  the  divine  displeasure, 
as  it  is  evidently  represented  to  have  been,  upon  Judas.* 

The  names  and  order  of  the  twelve  apostles,  in  the  last 
list  we  have  of  them,  are 

I.Peter,  5.  Philip,  9.  James  Alpheus, 

2.  James,         6.  Thomas,  10.  Simon  Zelotes, 

3.  John,  7.  Bartholomew,     11.  Jude,the  brother  of  James, 

4.  Andrew,      8.  Matthew,  12.  Matthias. 


In  the  Lives  of  the  Apostles,  written  by  the  eunuch  Dora- 
theus,  bishop  of  Tyrus,  who  died  a.  d.  366,  we  have  the 
following  brief  account  of  the  apostles  respectively : 

1.  Simon  Peter. 
Simon  Peter  is  the  chief  of  the  apostles.  He,  as  we 
are  given  to  understand  by  his  epistles,  preached  the  Gos- 
pel of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cfppado- 
cia,  Bithynia,  and  in  the  end  preached  at  Rome,  where, 
afterwards,  he  was  crucified,  the  third  kalends  of  July, 
under  Nero  the  emperor,  with  his  head  downwards  (for 
that  was  his  desire) ,  and  there  also  buried. 

2.  James. 

James,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  a  fisherman,  preached  the 
Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  the  twelve  dispersed 
tribes.  He  was  slain  with  the  sword,  by  Herod  the  te- 
trarch,  in  Judea,  where  also  he  was  buried. 

3.  John. 

John,  the  brother  of  James,  who  was  also  an  evangelist, 
whom  the  Lord  loved,  preached  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  in  Asia.  The  emperor  Trajan  exiled  him 
into  the  Isle  of  Patmos  for  the  word  of  God,  where  he 
wrote  also  his  gospel,  the  which  afterwards*  he  published 
at  Ephesus,  by  Gains,  his  host  and  deacon.  After  the 
death  of  Trajan,  he  returned  out  of  the  Isle  of  Patmos, 
and  remained  at  Ephesus,  until  he  had  lived  a  hundred 
and  twenty  years,  at  the  end  of  which,  he  being  yet  in 
full  health  and  strength  (for  the  Lord  would  have  it  so), 

*  See  this  question  settled  in  the  chapter  on  Martyrdom. 


CHRISTIAN    EVIDENCES.  263 

digged  his  own  grave,  and  buried  himself  alive.  There 
are  some  which  write  that  he  was  not  banished  into  the 
Isle  of  Patmos  under  Trajan,  but  in  the  time  of  Domitian, 
the  son  of  Vespasian. 

The  translator  of  this  John,  St.  Jerome,  quotes  the  au- 
thority of  Tertullian  to  prove,  that  in  the  time  of  Nero, 
he  was  thrown  at  Rome  into  a  tun  of  hot  boiling  oil,  and 
thereby  he  took  no  harm,  but  came  forth  after  his  trial 
purer  than  when  he  went  in.  St.  Augustine  relates,  that 
"  after  St.  John  had  made  his  grave  at  Ephesus,  in  the 
presence  of  divers  persons,  he  went  into  it  alive,  and 
being  no  sooner  in,  and  as  appeared  to  the  by-standers, 
dead,  they  threw  the  earth  in  upon  him,  and  covered  him; 
but  that  kind  of  rest  was  rather  to  be  termed  a  state  of 
sleep  than  of  death;  for  that  the  earth  of  the  grave  bub- 
bleth  and  boileth  up  to  this  day  after  the  manner  of  a 
well,  by  reason  of  John  resting  therein  and  breathing — 
a  sign  that  he  only  slumbereth  there,  but  is  not  really 
dead!  And  till  Christ  shall  come  again,  thus  he  remains, 
plainly  showing  that  he  is  alive  by  the  heaving  up  of  the 
earth,  which  is  caused  by  his  breathing;  for  the  dust  is 
believed  to  ascend  from  the  bottom  of  the  tomb  to  the 
top,  impelled  by  the  state  of  him  resting  beneath  it. 
Those  who  know  the  place,"  adds  this  conscientiously 
veracious  Father,  "  must  have  seen  the  earth  thus 
heave  up  and  down;  and  that  it  is  certainly  truth,  we 
are  assured,  as  having  heard  it  from  no  light-minded 
witnesses."* 

4.  Andrew, 

The  brother  of  Simon  Peter,  as  our  elders  have  deliv- 
ered unto  us,  preached  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  unto  the  Scythians,  Sogdians,  Sacians,  and  in  the 
middle  Sebastopolis  inhabited  of  wild  Ethiopians.  He 
was  crucified  by  ^geas,  king  of  the  Edessoens,  and  buried 
at  Patris,  a  city  of  Achaia. 

*  "  Idem  Augustinus  asserat  Apostolum  Johannem  vivere  atque  in  illo  sepul- 
chre ejus,  quod  est  apud  Ephesum,  dormire  eum  potius  quam  mortuum  jacere 
contendat.  Assumat  in  argumentum  quod  illic  terra  sensim  seatere  et  quasi 
ebuUire  perhibeatur,  atque  hoc  ejus  anhelltu  fieri.  £t  cum  mortuus  putaretur, 
sepultum  fuisse  donnientem,  et  donee  Christus  veniat,  sic  manere,  suamque  vitam 
scaturigine  pulveris  .indicare  :  qui  pulvis  creditur  ut  ab  imo  ad  superficiem  tumuli 
ascendat  statu  quesceutis  impelli.  .  .  .  Viderint  qui  locum  sciunt — quia-et  rev  era, 
non  a  levibus  hominibus  id  audivimus.  Ad  hanc  rem  satis  superque  satis  tes- 
tificandam  utor. — Fabricii  Codice  Apocrypha,  torn.  2,  p.  590,  in  notis. 


s64  christian  evidences. 

5.  Philip. 

Philip^  of  the  city  of  Bethsaida,  preached  the  Gospel  in 
Phry^ia;  he  was  honourably  buried  at  Hierapolis,  with 
his  daughters.  In  Acts  viii.  39,  Philip  is  described  as  pos- 
sessing the  power  of  rendering  himself  invisible. 

6.  Thomas, 

Jls  it  hath  been  delivered  unto  us,*  preached  the  Gospel  of 
our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  unto  the  Parthians,  Medes,  and 
Persians;  he  preached  also  unto  the  Caramans,  Hircans, 
Bactrians,  and  Magicians!  He  rested  at  Calamina,  a  city 
in  India,  being  slain  with  a  dart,  where  he  was  also  hon- 
ourably buried. 

7.  Bartholomew 

Preached  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  the 
Indians,  and  delivered  unto  them  the  gospel  of  Matthew. 
He  rested,  and  was  buried  in  Albania,  a  city  of  Armenia 
the  Great. 

The  translator,  Peter  de  Natalibus,  informs  us,  that  this 
St.  Bartholomew  was  nephew  to  the  king  of  Syria.  An- 
tonius,  in  his  Chronicle,  writeth,  that  some  have  delivered 
that  he  was  beaten  to  death  vdth  cudgels;  some,  that  he 
was  crucified  with  his  head  downwards;  others,  that  he 
was  flayed  alive;  and  others,  that  he  was  beheaded,  at  the 
commandment  of  Ptolemseus,  king  of  India ;  but  Peter  de 
Natal,  together  with  Abdias,  bishop  of  Babylon,  reconcile 
the  whole  in  this  manner:  how  that  the  first  day  the  apos- 
tle was  beaten  with  cudgels,  the  second  day  crucified  and 
flayed  alive,  and  afterwards,  while  yet  he  continued  to 
breathe,  beheaded. 

With  all  due  respect  to  such  profoundly  learned  author- 
ities, I  could  suggest  another  way  of  reconciling  the  whole 
matter.  This  royal  apostle  was  especially  distinguished 
for  his  miraculous  power  of  rendering  himself  invisible, 
and  slipping  through  the  key-hole  into  bed-chambers,  for 
the  greater  convenience  of  givino^  lectures  to  young  ladies, 
on  the  immaculate  conception  of  the  Virgin  Mary.f  This 
faculty  he  possessed  in  common  with  St.  Philip. 

*  Surely  this  is  a  very  suspicious  sort  of  wording  for  the  first  and  earliest  testi- 
mony that  can  be  pretended  to  the  existence  of  so  extraordinary  a  Thomas. 

t  F,t  csBpit  quiKrere  Apostolum,  sed  non  invenit  eum  amplius.  Factum  est 
autem  ut  apparuit  Apostolus  ostio  clause  in  cubiculo  ipsius  dicens  nihil  carnale 
desidero  sed  scire  te  volo  quia  filius  Dei  in  virginis  vulva  conceptus,  inter  ipsa 
gecreta  Virginia.     Ohe  !  jam  satis  est !  terque  quaterque  plus  quam  satis  ! 


christian  evidences.  265 

8.  Matthew, 
The  evangelist,  v^rote  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesns 
Christ  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  and  delivered  it  unto  James, 
the  brother  of  the  Lord  according  to  the  flesh,  vvrho  was 
bishop  of  Jerusalem.  He  died  at  Hierapolis,  in  Parthia, 
where  he  also  was  honourably  buried. 

9.  James  Alpheus. 

James,  the  son  of  Alpheus,  was  bishop  of  Jerusalem 
by  the  appointment  of  the  other  apostles.  He  was  killed 
by  St.  Paul.  Having  been  set  by  the  Jews  upon  a  pinna- 
cle of  the  temple,  Saul,  who  was  afterwards  called  Paul, 
thrust  him  off ;  and  while  yet  he  breathed  after  his  fall, 
one  came  with  a  fuller's  club  and  brained  him. 

10.  Simon  Zelotes. 

Simon  Zelotes,  that  is,  Simon  the  Fanatic^  preached  Christ 
throughout  Mauritania  and  the  Lesser  Africa;  at  length  he 
was  crucified  in  Britannia,  slain  and  buried. 

11.    JUDE. 

Jude,  the  brother  of  James,  called  also  Thaddaeus  and 
Lebbceus,  preached  unto  the  Edessseans,  and  throughout 
all  Mesopotamia.  He  was  slain  at  Berytus,  in  the  time  of 
Agbarus,  king  of  Edessa,  and  buried  very  honourably. 

These  two  apostles,  St.  Simon  and  St.  Jude,  are  generally 
mentioned  together,  and  seem  to  have  been  inseparably 
united  through  the  whole  course  of  their  truly  incredible 
adventures.  Their  commemoration  is  kept  by  the  church 
of  England  on  the  28th  day  of  October.  Their  conjoint 
miracles  of  healing  all  manner  of  diseases,  raising  the 
dead  till  churchyards  were  completely  useless,  and  wor- 
rying and  tormenting  the  poor  devils  till  they  howled  and 
squealed,  and  wished  themselves  back  again  in  hell  from 
*  whence  they  had  issued;  are  but  every-day  work,  common 
to  them  with  all  the  rest  of  the  apostolic  community.  But 
they  were  more  especially  distinguished  by  their  holy 
zeal,  and  their  exertion  of  miraculous  energies  in  protect- 
ing the  moral  character  of  those  whom  they  had  once 
admitted  into  holy  orders.     *  "  They  had  with  them  many 

*  Habebunt  autem  secum  discipulos  multos,  ex  quibus  ordinabant  per  civitates 
presbyteros,  et  diaconos  et  clericos,  et  ecclesias  multas  constituebant.  Factum  est 
autem  ut  unus  ex  diaconibus  pateretur  crimen  incesti.  Erat  enim  vicinus  filise 
SatrapjE  cujusdam  ditissimi  hominis,  quae  perdita  virginitate  partum  edens  pericli- 
tabatur.  Interrogata  autem  a  parentibus  virum  Dei  sanctum  et  castum  Euphrosi- 
num  diaconum  impetebat.     Qui  tentus  a  parentibus  puellae  urgebatur  eabire  vin- 

24 


266  CHRISTIAN    EVIDENCES. 

disciples,  out  of  whom  they  ordained  in  every  city,  priests, 
deacons  and  clerks,  and  for  whom  they  built  innumerable 
churches.  It  happened  that  one  of  their  deacons  was 
accused  of  criminal  conversation.  The  daughter  of  a 
wealthy  satrap  being  found  in  the  plight  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  after  she  had  received  the  salutation  of  the  angel 
Gabriel,  but  not  able,  like  her,  to  persuade  the  world  that 
her  pregnancy  resulted  from  the  obumbration  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  upon  being  questioned  by  her  parents,  swore  her 
child  upon  the  chaste  and  holy  deacon  Euphrosinus,  upon 
whom  her  parents  were  for  taking  the  law;  which,  when 
the  apostles  St.  Simon  and  St.  Jude  heard,  they  came 
instantly  to  the  girl's  parents,  who,  upon  seeing  the 
apostles,  loudly  accused  the  deacon  of  the  crime.  Then 
the  apostle  said,  '  When  was  the  child  born?'  And  they 
answered,  '  This  very  day,  at  one  o'clock.'  Then  said 
they,  '  Bring  the  infant  and  this  deacon,  whom  you  accuse, 
together  before  us.'  And,  upon  the  infant  and  the  deacon 
being  confronted,  the  apostles  addressed  the  new-born 
babe,  and  said,  '  In  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
speak  and  tell  us  if  this  deacon  got  you.'  Whereupon 
the  babe,  with  most  perfect  and  complete  eloquence, 
answered,  '  Gentlemen,  I  assure  you  that  this  deacon  is 
holy  and  chaste,  and  has  never  — ■ — .'  (The  reader  must 
translate  the  rest  on't  for  himself — the  young  one  was  a 
bit  of  a  wag.)  But  the  parents  of  the  girl  insisted  that 
the  apostles  should  make  the  child  tell  (if  the  deacon  was 
not  his  father)  who  else  icas.  The  apostles  answered  and 
said,  '  Oh,  no;  it  is  our  place  only  to  absolve  the  inno- 
cent, not  to  betray  the  guilty.'  "  There  was  evidently  a 
good  understanding  between  the  apostles  themselves  and 
the  young  one. 

12.  Matthias. 
Matthias,  being  one  of  the  seventy  disciples,  was  after- 
wards numbered  with  the  eleven  apostles,  in  the  room  of 

dictam.  Quod  ubi  Apostoli  audiverunt,  venerunt  ad  parentes  puellae.  At  illi  cnm 
adspexissent  apostolos,  caeperent  clamare  et  diaconum  reum  hujus  criminis  accusare. 
Turn  Apostoli:  quando  inquiunt  natus  est  puer?  responderunt  hodie  hora  diei  pri- 
ma. Dicunt  ei  apostoli.  Perducite  hue  infantem,  et  diaconum  quern  accusatis 
hue  pariter  addueite.  Cumque  in  prsesentia  essent,  allov|uuntur  apostoli  infantem, 
dicentes:  "In  nomine  Domini  nostri  Jesu  Christi  loquere,  et  die  si  iste  diaconus 
prtfcsumserit  banc  iniquitatem.'*  Tuminfans  absolutissimo  sermone  ait,  "  Hie  dia- 
conus, vir  sanctus  et  castus  est  et  nunquam  inquinavit  camem  suam."  Rursua  an- 
tem  insistebant  parentes  Apostolis,  ut  de  persona  infans  interrogaretur  incesti.  Qui 
dixerunt:  nos  innocentes  solvere  decet,  et  nocentes  prodere  non  decet. — De  SS. 
Simone  et  Juda  Abdia  Historia  Apostolic.a,  lib.  6,  c.  18. 


CHRISTIAN    EVIDENCES.  267 

Judas  the  traitor.  He  preached  the  Gospel  in  Ethiopia, 
about  the  haven  called  Hyssus  and  the  river  Phasis,  unto 
barbarous  nations  and  cannibals.  He  died  at  Sebasto- 
polis,  and  was  buried  near  the  temple  of  the  Sun. 

CEPHAS. 

It  appears  from  the  Catalogue  of  Dorotheus,  that  Cephas, 
who  was  one  of  the  seventy  disciples,  and  not  one  of  the 
twelve  apostles,  was  the  person  whom  Paul  reprehended 
at  Antioch,  and  that  he  was  bishop  of  Cannia.  For  though 
Cephas  is  a  Syriac  word  of  the  same  sense  and  signifi- 
cancy  as  Peter,  or  Petra,  a  rock,*  yet  have  we  this  positive 
testimony  of  Dorotheus,  who  wrote  earlier  than  Eusebius, 
and  all  the  conceivable  congruities  of  the  case,  supported 
by  the  explicit  and  positive  testimony  of  Eusebius,  and  of 
Clemens  Alexandrinus,  that  Cephas  and  Peter  were  wholly 
distinct  personages. t  By  this  understanding  we  evade 
the  revolting  absurdity  of  the  supposition,  that  Paul,  a 
late  convert,  should  have  taken  upon  himself  to  withstand 
Peter  to  the  face,  when  he  was  come  to  Antioch  (Gal.  ii), 
while  we  retain  the  other  horn  of  the  dilemma,  that  Paul 
has,  in  his  1st  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  (chap,  xv.),  giv- 
en an  account  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  utterly  irre- 
concileable  with  that  of  either  of  our  four  gospels.| 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    ACTS    OP    THE    APOSTLES. 

This  critique  is  of  most  essential  argument,  inasmuch, 
as  if  valid,  it  tends  to  detect  and  cut  off  the  sophistical 
artifice  which  would  endeavour  to  connect  the  narrative 
and  probable  part  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  with  the 
mystical  personages  and  adventures  of  the  Gospel,  there- 
by aiming  to  reflect  something  of  the  air  of  historical 
probability  which  attaches  to  the  mere  journal  of  the 
voyages  and  travels  of  some  schismatical  missionaries 
from  the  Egyptian"  monasteries,  upon  the  wholly  super- 

*  It  is  in  French  only  that  the  miserable  pun  on  St.  Peter's  name  is  exact — 
"TuesPierri  et  sur  cette  pierre."  The  same  is  imperfect  in  Greek,  Latin, 
Italian,  &c.  and  totally  unintelligible  in  our  Teutonic  languages. 

■\  HS'  laroQia  naqa  KXr^utvri—~iv  ri  xai  Ktjtpctv,  ttiqi  ov  (ftjOiv  o  HavXog,  on  Sb 
tlX&s  Ktjcpag  iig  ArXiox^iMv^  xuxa  nqoauypcov  uvrui  anTiOTrjr,  on  xoTtyvJoo^ivo?  t^, 
era  yt/ffi  ycyovtvai  twv  efiSour]xovTa  ^ta^ijTwr  ofiiovvfcov  Hixqta  TvyYUvovra  TU) 
anoaroXw. — Euseb.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  1,  c.  12,  C. 

t  Neither  the  Peter  nor  the  Judas  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  are  the  same 
characters  as  the  Peter  and  Judas  of  the  Gospels,  nor  can  the  two  histories  be  fair- 
ly reconciled. 


268  CHRISTIAN    EVIDENCES. 

natural  dramatis  personce  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  make  the 
one  seem  a  sequel  and  a  continuation  of  the  other. 

To  this  device  solely,  we  owe  the  canonicity  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  an  evident  fragment  as  it  is,  and  an 
awkward  jumble  of  fiction  and  fact,  romance  and  real  his- 
tory. It  was  held  necessary  (so  as  it  were  to  bring  heaven 
and  earth  together)  that  some  account,  it  mattered  not 
what,  should  be  crammed  down  the  gaping  throat  of  that 
natural  curiosity  which  Would  want  to  know  what  became 
of  the  glorioits  company  of  the  apostles  after  they  had  seen 
Jesus  Christ  ascend  up  through  the  clouds,  pass  through 
Orion's  belt,  and  take  his  chair  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 
So  late,  however,  as  a.  d.  407,  or  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  had  not  gained  general 
acceptance,  or  was  rather  too  gross  a  finesse  even  for  the 
credulity  of  the  faithful. 

Chrysostom,  bishop  of  Constantinople  at  that  time,  in 
his  first  homily  upon  the  title  and  beginning  of  this  legend, 
says,  "  To  many  this  book  is  unknown,  by  others  it  is 
despised,  because  it  is  clear  and  easy."  The  first  of  his 
homilies  upon  the  whole  book  begins  with  the  sentence, 
"  By  many  this  book  is  not  at  all  known,  neither  (the  book) 
itself,  nor  who  wrote  and  put  it  together."* 


CASE    OP    ST.    JUDAS    ISCARIOT. 

Judas  Iscariot,  though  thrown  out  of  the  list  of  apostles, 
by  an  apparent  conspiracy  of  the  rest  against  him,  had, 
in  the  contexture  of  the  Gospel-story,  certainly  been 
chosen  and  appointed  to  the  apostleship  by  Christ  himself, 
had  received  and  exercised  the  gift  of  miracles,  had  cast 
out  as  many  devils,  healed  as  many  patients,  and  restored 
as  many  dead  folks  to  life,  as  any  of  his  apostolic  brethren. 
His  being  the  treasurer  of  the  Mendicity  Society,  having 
the  bag,  and  bearing  what  was  put  therein,  is  a  strong 
presumption  that  he  was  the  most  trustworthy  among 
them.  The  sincerity  and  the  intensity  of  his  repentance 
for  having  betrayed  Jesus — his  returning  the  wages  of 
iniquity  which  he  had  received,  and  above  all,  his  offering 
himself  to  the  imminent  hazard  of  death,  by  coming  for- 
ward and  protesting  to  the  innocence  of  his  master,  when 
all  his  other   disciples    forsook   him   and   fled,  and  then 

*  Tlolloiq  xovxo  ^i(iXtov  ovSoTiovv  yvtoQifiov  tariv,  ovre  avro,  ovxt  o  ypayo?  avTO 
xa  (fuf9et?. — T«,  p.  1.  Compare  with  Dr.  Lardner's  futile  recalcitration,  quoted 
in  our  Chapter  of  Admissions,  p.  41. 


CHRISTIAN    EVIDENCES.  269 

terminating  his  own  life  in  an  agony  of  sorrow  for  his 
fault;  are  alleviating  considerations,  which  must  render 
him,  with  all  but  bad-hearted  people,  rather  an  object  of 
pity  than  of  hatred;  and  when  Peter,  who  cursed  and 
swore,  and  lied  and  perjured,  till  the  very  cock  crowded 
shame  on  him,  was  forgiven  upon  a  wink,  Judas  must  cer- 
tainly be  considered  as  having  been  very  unfairly  used. 
But  no  ingenuity  of  critical  chicane  can  reconcile  the 
character  of  the  Judas  of  the  gospels  with  the  personage 
who  bears  the  same  name  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles;  they 
are  wholly  different  characters. 

The  Judas  of  the  Gospels  The  Judas  of  the  Acts 

Repented  ;  Did  not  repent ; 

Returned  the  money  to  the  chief  Kept  the  money  for  his  own  use; 

priests  and  elders ; 

Cast  it  down  in  the  temple,  and  Bought  a  field  with  it; 

departed  ; 

Died  by  his  own  act  and  will.  Died  by  accident. 


Next  to  the  immediate  apostles,  in  apostolic  dignity,  and 
first  of  all  real  personages  whose  existence  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt,  however  much  there  may  be  to  question 
whether  their  adventures  and  performances  were  such  as 
have  been  ascribed  to  them,  are  the  two  unapostolical 
evangelists,  Mark  and  Luke,  and  that  least  of  the  apostles, 
who  was  not  meet  to  be  called  an  apostle,*  Paul  of  Tarsus,  the 
apostolic  chief  of  sinners.^ 

Mark 

The  evangelist,  according  to  Eusebius,  was  bishop  of 
Alexandria.  "  He  preached  the  Gospel,"  says  Dorotheus, 
"  unto  the  people  of  Alexandria,  and  all  the  bordering  re- 
gions from  Egypt  unto  Pentapolis.  In  the  time  of  Trajan, 
he  had  a  cable-rope  tied'  about  his  neck  at  Alexandria,  by 
which  he  was  drawn  from  the  place  called  Bucolus  unto 
the  place  called  Angels,  where  he  was  burned  to  ashes  by 
the  furious  idolaters,  in  the  month  of  April,  and  buried  at 
Bucolus. 

Luke 
The  evangelist,  of  the  city  of  Antioch,  by  profession  a 
physician  (i.  e.  a  Therapeut),  wrote  the  Gospel  as  he 

*  1  Cor.  XV.  9.  1 1  Tim.  i.  16. 


270  CHRISTIAN   EVIDENCES. 

heard  Peter  the  apostle  preach,  and  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  as  Paul  delivered  unto  him.  He  accompanied 
the  apostles  in  their  peregrinations,  but  especially  Paul. 
He  died  at  Ephesus,  where  he  was  also  buried;*  and  after 
many  years,  together  with  Andrew  and  Timothy,  he  was 
translated  to  Constantinople,  in  the  time  of  Constantius, 
the  son  of  Constantinus  Magnvis. 

Paul, 

Being  called  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself  after  his 
assumption,  and  numbered  in  the  catalogue  of  the  apostles, 
began  to  preach  the  Gospel  from  Jerusalem,  and  travelled 
through  Illyricum,  Italy,  and  Spain.  His  epistles  are  ex- 
tant at  this  day  full  of  all  heavenly  wisdom. f  He  was 
beheaded  at  Rome  under  Nero,  the  third  kalends  of  July, 
so  died  a  martyr,  and  lieth  there,  buried  with  Peter  the 
apostle." — Thus  far  Dorotheus. 

Though  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  existence  of  St. 
Paul,  of  his  being  entirely  such  a  character  as  he  is  in  the 
New  Testament  represented  to  have  been,  and  that  the 
epistles  which  go  under  his  name  are  competently  authentic, 
and  such  as  without  a  most  unphilosophical  and  futile 
litigiousness,  no  man  would  think  of  denying  to  have 
been  written  by  him,  excepting  only  a  few  immaterial 
interpolations;  yet  for  the  fact  of  his  having  been  be- 
headed by  order  of  Nero,  or  having  suffered  martyrdom 
in  any  way,  we  have  no  better  authority  than  such  as 
those  who  would  have  us  believe  it,  would  be  ashamed  to 
produce;  that  is,  neither  other  nor  better  authority  than 
that  of  Linus,  the  imaginary  successor  of  the  imaginary 
St.  Peter  in  the  bishopric  of  Rome,  who  would  persuade 
us,  that  "after  Paul's  head  was  struck  off  by  the  sword 
of  the  executioner,  it  did  with  a  loud  and  distinct  voice 
utter  forth,  in  Hebrew,  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
while,  instead  of  blood,  it  was  nought  but  a  stream  of 
pure  milk  that  flowed  from  his  veins;"  or  that  of  Abdias, 
bishop  of  Babylon,  who  assures  us,  that  when  his  head 

*  The  particular  care  which  this  historian  shows  for  haviiig  all  his  saints  and 
martyrs  authentically  buried  is,  to  attest  the  identity  of  their  relics,  which  retained 
their  miraculous  virtue  for  ages,  and  thus  achieved  as  many  miracles  after  their 
decease  as  they  had  ever  done  while  living.  From  the  time  when  these  worthies 
were  buried  till  the  accession  of  Constantius  must  have  been  upwards  of  300  years, 
80  that  in  the  natural  order  of  things,  every  particle  of  their  bodies  must  have 
evaporated  or  mouldered  away;  hut  Manet  post  funera  virtus! 

t  This  heavenly  wisdom  is  a  very  particular  sort  of  wisdom. 


CHRISTIAN   EVIDENCES.  271 

was  cut  off,  instead  of  blood,  ran  milk,  so  that  the  milky 
wave  flowed  all  over  the  sword,  and  washed  over  the  ex- 
ecutioner's arm.* 

In  a  church  at  Rome,  at  this  day  called  At  the  three  foun- 
tains^ the  place  where  St.  Paul  was  beheaded,  they  show 
the  identical  spot  where  the  milk  spouted  forth  from  his 
apostolical  arteries,  and  where,  moreover,  his  head,  after 
it  had  done  preaching,  took  three  jumps  (to  the  honour  of 
the  holy  Trinity),  and  at  each  spot  on  which  it  jumped 
there  instantly  struck  up  a  spring  of  living  water,  which 
retains  at  this  day  a  plain  and  distinct  taste  of  milk.  Of 
all  which  facts,  Baronius,  Mabillon,  and  all  the  gravest 
authors  of  the  Roman  Catholic  communion,  give  us  the 
most  credible  and  unquestionable  assurance. f 

It  would  be  an  injustice,  however,  to  father  such  mira- 
culous accounts  exclusively  on  the  writers  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  communion.  We  should  not  have  even  a  single 
credible  witness  left  to  ascertain  to  us,  that  Christianity, 
in  any  shape  or  guise,  continued  in  existence,  or  what 
it  was,  after  it  passed  from  the  first  to  other  hands,  should 
we  consider  the  most  egregious,  atrocious,  impudent  lying 
as  a  disparagement  to  the  credibility  of  Christian  historians. 
It  is  no  fanatic  or  enthusiast  who  is  himself  deceived,  but 
it  is  the  calm,  serious,  calculating,  most  sincere,  most 
accomplished,  most  veracious  St.  Augustin,  who,  in  his 
33rd  Sermon  addressed  to'  his  reverend  brethren,  fear- 
lessly stakes  his  eternal  salvation  to  the  fact,  which 
was  as  true  as  the  Gospel,  and  for  which  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  he  would  as  cheerfully  as  for  the 
Gospel  have  suffered  himself  to  be  burned  at  the  stake; 
that  "  he  himself  being  at  that  time  bishop  of  Hippo 
Regius,  had  preached  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ  to  a  whole  nation  of  men  and  women  that 
had  no  heads,  but  had  their  eyes  in  their  bosoms;  and  in 
countries  still  more  southerly,  he  preached  to  a  nation 
among  whom  each  individual  had  but  one  eye,  and  that 
situate  in  the  middle  of  the  forehead.^  While  the  no  less 
credible  Eusebius  assures  us,  that  on  some  occasions  the 
bodies  of  the  martyrs  who  had  been  devoured  by  wild 

*  Flexis  genibus,  crucisque  se  signo  muniens,  cervicem  prcebuit  percussori  ; 
E  cujusgladio,  desecto  capite,  pro  sanguine  lac  cucurrit  ita  ut  percussoris  dextram 
lactea  unda  perfunderet. — Apostol.  Hist.  lib.  2,  p.  455. 

t  See  the  statement  to  the  sense,  not  the  letter,  in  Dr.  Mddleton's  Letter  from 
Rome,  p.  127. 

t  Syntagma,  p.  33. 


272  CHRISTIAN    EVIDENCES. 

beasts,  upon  the  beasts  being  strangled,  were  found  alive 
in  their  stomachs,  even  after  having  been  completely- 
digested.* 

Such  statements,  and  ecclesiastical  history  is  little  bet- 
ter than  a  continued  series  of  such,  must  surely  convince 
every  impartial  inquirer,  that  the  professors  and  preach- 
ers of  Christianity,  however  a  few  honourable  exceptions 
may  have  from  time  to  time  arisen,  (as  never  was  the  so- 
ciety so  bad,  but  that  there  must  have  been  some  among 
them  not  quite  so  bad  as  the  worst),  yet  generally  they 
were  men  who  had  no  respect  for  truth,  and  no  governing 
principle  but  a  wicked  esprit  du  corps^  which  determined 
them  d  toute  outrance  to  impose  on  the  credulity  and  igno- 
rance of  the  vulgar. 

That  there  is  no  difference  between  the  Popish  legends  and  the 
canonical  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

The  great  difficulty  is  to  draw  the  line  between  eccle- 
siastical history,  and  that  which  is  truly  apostolical;  since 
it  is  hardly  possible  to  fix  on  a  legend  so  egregiously  ab- 
surd, or  a  pretended  miracle  so  monstrously  ridiculous, 
in  all  that  is  absurd  and  ridiculous  in  Popish  supersti- 
tion, but  that  its  original  type  and  first  draft  shall  be 
to  be  found  even  in  our  own  canonical  and  inspired 
Scriptures. 

After  having  laughed  at  St.  Dunstan's  taking  the  Devil 
by  the  nose  with  a  pair  of  red-hot  tongs,  in  the  golden 
legend,  we  are  made  to  laugh  on  the  other  side  of  the 
mouth,  or  rather  to  tremble  and  adore,  at  the  account, 
which  nobody  may  doubt,  of  the  fate  of  the  seven  sons  of 
Sceva  the  Jew,  in  conflict  with  whom  it  was  the  Devil 
who  proved  victorious,  and  overcame  them,  and  prevailed 
against  them,  so  that  theyjled  out  of  that  house  naked  and  wounded. 
Nor  was  the  wonder-working  name  of  "  Jesus,  whom  Paul 
preached,"  sufficient  to  lay  him;  for,  said  the  Devil,  '■^ Jesus 
I  know,  and  Paul  I  know,  but  who  are  youV — Acts  xix.  15. 

In  like  manner  we  Protestants,  who  despise  all  the  sto- 
ries of  miracles  wrought  by  old  rags,  rotten  bones,  rusty 
nails,  pocket-handkerchiefs,  and  aprons;  that  stand  on  no 
better  authority  than  those  monkish  tales  which  our  church 
has  rejected,  do  bow  with  implicit  faith  to  the  miracles 
wrought  by  relics,  which  stand  on  the  authority  of  those 
monkish  tales  which  our  church  has  not  rejected;  and  it 
is  to  be  believed,  or  at  least  not  laughed  at,  under  peril  of 

*  Lardner,  vol.  4,  p.  91. 


CHRISTIAN    EVIDENCES.  273 

being  sent  to  jail,  that  "  God  wrought  special  miracles  by  the 
hand  of  Paid,  so  that  from  his  body  tcere  brought  unto  the  sick^ 
handkerchiefs  or  aprons,  and  the  diseases  departed  from  them,  and 
the  evil  spirits  went  out  from  them.'''' — Acts  xix.  12. 

Here  again  is  an  egregious  atopism. — How  could  St. 
Paul  have  aprons  1  or  what  use  could  Jews  have  of  pocket 
handkerchiefs  9  Are  we  to  forget  that  their  sleeves  and 
beards  answered  all  the  purpose,  and  saved  washing  ? 

We  are  at  full  liberty  to  have  our  mirth  out  at  the  story 
of  St.  Bartholomew  possessing  the  faculty  of  becoming  in- 
visible, and  appearing  and  disappearing,  as  the  cause  of 
the  gospel  required,  because  that  story  rests  only  on  .the 
authority  of  the  apostolic  history  of  Abdias,  a  few  pages 
further  on  than  our  canonical  Acts  of  the  Apostles  has 
continued  to  make  extracts  from  it  ;  but  had  it  been  intro- 
duced, as  many  arguments  would  have  been  adduced  by 
our  clergy  to  justify  it,  and  as  great  peril  of  incarcera- 
tion incurred  for  snuffing  at  it,  as  at  precisely  the  parallel 
story  of  St.  Philip,  who,  in  the  canonical  part  of  the  book, 
is  described  as  riding  in  the  air,  as  picked  up  by  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  in  one  place,  and  popped  down  in  another 
(Acts  8  .  40). 

That  no  such  persons  as  the  Twelve  Apostles  ever  existed. 

Thus  the  glorious  company  of  the  apostles ^  having  glistened 
upon  the  world's  darkness  like  the  sparks  on  a  burnt  rag, 
go  out  in  like  manner,  leaving  no  more  vestige  of  their 
existence,  or  of  any  effect  of  the  miraculous  powers  with 
which  they  are  believed  to  have  been  invested,  than  "the 
bird's  wing  on  the  air,  or  the  pathway  of  the  keel  through 
the  wave."  No  credible  history  whatever  recognizes  the 
existence  of  any  one  of  them,  or  of  any  one  result  of  all 
their  stupendous  labours  and  sufferings.  The  very  criterion 
miracle  itself,  the  most  critical  and  important  of  all,  that 
which  if  not  true,  leaves  not  so  much  as  a  possibility 
that  any  other  should  be  so — the  miracle  of  the  gift  of 
tongues,  not  only  has  no  one  particle  of  concurrent  evi- 
dence in  all  the  world  to  make  it  credible,  or  even  to 
make  it  conceivable,  but  absolutely  breaks  down  and  gives 
way,  and  is  attended  by  positive  demonstration  of  its 
falsehood,  even  in  the  immediate  context  of  the  legend 
which  relates  it.  In  sequence,  on  the  passage  which  in- 
structs us  that  the  assembled  apostles  were  by  the 
immediate  power  of  God  "enabled  to  speak  all  the  lan- 
guages  of  the  earth  in  a  moment  of  time,"   and  thus 


274  THE    ARGUMENT    OP    MARTYRDOM. 

unquestionably  must  have  been  rendered  the  most  con- 
summate and  accomplished  scholars  that  ever  lived,  we 
find  Peter  and  John,  the  most  distinguished  of  them,  in. 
the  next  scene,  broug-lit  before  the  magistrates  as  notorious 
tricksters  and  cheats,  and  then  and  there  availing  them- 
selves of  their  supernatural  gift  of  eloquence  to  no  better 
effect,  than  to  show  that  they  were  unlearned  and  ignorant 
men,  (Acts  iv.  13). 

The  Arabian  Nights  Entertainments  are  more  consistent. 
Consult  the  records  of  history,  and  what  has  become  of 
these  most  extraordinary  personages  that  ever  existed, 
if  indeed  they  ever  existed  ?  Not  only  their  names 
are  no  where  to  be  found,  but  the  mighty  works  which 
should  have  perpetuated  their  names  have  no  records. 
The  churches  which  they  are  said  to  have  founded,  have 
all  shared  the  fate  of  Alladin's  castle :  the  nations  which 
they  converted,  have  all  relapsed  into  idolatry  ;  the  light 
that  was  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,  only  served  to  introduce 
the  dark  ages.  Not  only  chronology, and  history  withhold 
all  countenance  from  the  fabulous  adventures  of  these 
fabulous  personages,  but  geography  itself  recoils  from  the 
story  ;  not  only  were  there  no  such  persons  as  themselves, 
and  no  such  persons  as  the  kings  and  potentates  whom 
they  are  said  to  have  baptized  and  converted,  but  no  such 
countries,  cities,  and  nations  as  many  of  those  in  which 
they  are  said  to  have  achieved  their  mightiest  works.  I  ike 
their  divine  Master,  their  kingdoms  were  not  of  this  woi^ld. 
Where,  for  instance,  was  tiie  country  of  the  Magicians, 
of  the  Amazons,  of  the  Acephali,  the  Monoculi,  and  the 
Salamanders  ?  Where  but  in  the  same  latitude  with  Brob- 
dignag  and  Lilliputa  ? 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

THE    ARGUMENT    OF    MARTYRDOM. 

From  the  self-evident  absurdity  of  all  arguments  drawn 
from  miracles,  which  could  be  of  avail  only  to  those  who 
witnessed  them,  and  even  to  them  of  no  further  avail  than 
to  make  them  stare  and  wonder,  but  to  leave  them  in  as 
great  ignorance  as  ever  as  to  the  what  then,  or  what  infer- 
ence, from  an  unaccountable  fact  to  the  truth  or  falsehood 
of  an  unaccountable  doctrine,  divines  have  been  driven 
upon  the  dernier  resort  of  a  desperate  attempt  to  connect 


THE    ARGUMENT    OF    MARTYRDOM.  275 

Christianity  with  a  species  of  historical  evidence  arising 
from  the  argument  of  martyrdom. 

Accordingly,  in  the  latest  or  at  least  most  popular  treatise 
on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity  which  is  now  read  in  our 
universities,  and  generally  appealed  to  as  exhibiting  the 
whole  stress  of  the  cause  set  in  the  best  light,  and  shown 
to  the  utmost  advantage,  the  whole  burthen  is  laid  on 
these  two  propositions  : — 

First,  "  That  there  is  satisfactory  evidence  that  many 
professing  to  be  original  witnesses  of  the  Christian  mira- 
cles, passed  their  lives  in  labours,  dangers,  and  sufferings, 
voluntarily  undergone  in  attestation  of  the  accounts  which 
they  delivered,  and  solely  in  consequence  of  their  belief 
of  those  accounts  ;  and  that  they  also  submitted,  from  the 
same  motives,  to  new  rules  of  conduct." 

Second  Proposition.  "  That  there  is  not  satisfactory  ev- 
idence that  persons  pretending  to  be  original  witnesses  of 
any  other  similar  miracles,  have  acted  in  the  same  manner 
in  attestation  of  the  accounts  which  they  delivered,  and 
solely  in  consequence  of  their  belief  of  the  truth  of  those 
accounts."* 

Such  are  the  specific  propositions  on  which  the  whole 
fabric  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity  is  raised,  by  that 
great  master  "  of  thoughts  that  are  just,  and  words  that  are 
beautiful,'''' f  whose  name  and  authority  were  urged  to 
justify  the  cutting  off  from  society  of  one  whose  only  of- 
fence was,  that  he  availed  himself  of  thoughts  quite  as 
just,  in  words  as  beautiful,  leading  oi^y  to  diametrically 
opposite  conclusions. 

Not  to  quarrel  with  the  logic  of  these  propositions,  nor 
waste  a  moment's  indignation  on  the  apparent  insult 
Offered  to  the  acutest  sensibilities  of  our  nature,  in  thus 
couching  conditions  involving  the  eternal  happiness  or 
misery  of  man,  in  terms  whose  laxity  of  purport  and  in- 
definiteness  of  sense  could  intend  no  other  drift  than  to 
evade  conclusion,  to  disappoint  solicitude,  and  to  defeat 
examination ; 

We  apply  at  once  to  this  whole  argument  of  martyrdom, 
these  two  grand  conflicting  propositions  : — 

First,  That  sufferings  undergone  by  the  first  preachers 
of  Christianity  is  not  the  kind  of  evidence  which  we  have 

*  Paley's  Evidences  of  Christianity. 

t  Words  of  Sir  James  Scarlett,  sold  to  the  prosecution  of  the  Author  in  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench,  October  24,  1827. 


276  THE    ARGUMENT    OF   MARTYRDOM. 

a  right  to  expect  that  the  good  and  gracious  Father  of  man- 
kind should  have  given  to  a  revelation  which  he  was 
pleased  to  make  ; 

Second,  That  it  is  absolutely  noUrwe,  that  the  first  preach- 
ers of  Christianity  did  undergo  any  sutferings  whatever  in 
attestation  of  the  accounts  which  they  delivered. 

In  still  briefer  proposition,  the  argument  of  martyrdom 
is  not  true  ;  and  it  would  be  good  for  nothing,  if  it  were 
true. 

I.    That  Martyrdom  is  not  the  kind  of  evidence  ichich  we  have  a 

rigid  to  expect. 

Against  this  first  and  primordial  consideration  of  the 
business,  a  most  preposterous  and  absurd  war  of  nonsense 
and  insolence  is  generally  raised,  to  shelter  and  protect 
the  desolation  of  the.  Christian  argument.  '-'■  J^ay,  hut 
0  man,  icho  art  thou,  that  replicst  against  God  ?  What 
right  have  ice  to  demand  that  God  should  give  to  his 
revelation  just  such  evidence  as  we  please  to  think 
necessary  ?" 

To  all  which  sort  of  language,  though  disgracing  the 
style  of  authors  who  have  acquired  the  fame  of  critics, 
scholars,  and  rational  men,  on  all  other  subjects,  we  have 
only  to  bid  observance  be  awake  to  the  petitio  principii,  or 
entire  begging  of  the  question,  which  it  involves.  For  they 
who  write  or  preach  on  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, must  at  least  be  supposed  to  hold  out  that  they  have 
some  reasons  or  arguments  to  offer,  which  shall  induce  men 
who  before  did  not  believe,  to  become  believers  ;  or  those 
who  before  did  in  some  degree  believe,  to  believe  with  a 
stronger  degree  of  conviction  than  they  otherwise  would  : 
(which  is  a  branch  of  the  same  general  purpose)  :  and  to 
acquit  themselves  in  the  discharge  of  that  duty  which  the 
apostolic  injunction  hath  bound  upon  them — i.  e.  to  be 
ready  alioays  to  give  an  answer  to  every  man  that  asketh  them 
a  reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in  them,  with  meekness  and  fear* 
But  such  an  answer  is  a  veto  upon  all  reason,  and  a  com- 
plete admission  of  entire  inability  to  give  one  ;  and,  in- 
stead of  indicating  any  disposition  of  meekness,  is  little 
short  of  an  assumption  to  themselves  of  the  most  un- 
qualified infallibility  ;  and  brings  their  logic  into  a  circle^ 
which  all  rational  men  know  at  once  to  be  downright 
idiotcy.  For  not  only  must  they  maintain  that  the  evidence 


THE    ARGUMENT    OF    MARTYRDOM.  277 

was  therefore  proper,  because  it  is  such  as  God  has  been 
pleased  to  give,  but  that  God  has  been  pleased  to  give  it, 
because  it  was  proper  :  thus  assuming  to  themselves  that 
very  right  which  they  impugn,  and  exercising  that  prero- 
gative which  they  hold  to  be  the  highest  pitch  of  impiety 
when  claimed  by  other  persons,  or  exercised  to  other  ends 
than  their 's. 

And  this,  their  argumentum  in  circulo,  is  spun  upon  the 
pivot  of  another  sophism  in  logic,  the  assumptio  ex  post  facto. 
The  propriety  and  sufficiency  of  their  evidence  would 
never  have  been  dreamed  of,  if  it  had  not  been  that  such, 
and  none  other,  was  the  best  evidence  they  had  to  pre- 
tend ;  and  any  other  evidence  whatever  that  they  had 
chosen  to  pretend,  they  could  just  as  well  have  pretended 
to  be  the  proper  and  sufficient  evidence  as  this. 

The  impropriety  of  the  argument  cts  it  respects  the  character  of 
God. 

A  moment's  conscientious  reflection  must  surely  lead 
any  rational  mind  to  a  conviction  how  essentially  immoral 
and  unfit,  and  how  egregiously  irrelevant  and  inconclusive 
any  such  sort  of  evidence  to  a  divine  revelation  must  be, 
and  make  the  very  most  of  it,  and  concede  the  very 
utmost  in  its  favour.  Is  it  in  the  compass  of  invention  to 
conceive  any  thing  more  unworthy  op  God?  more  dis- 
paraging and  subversive  of  all  respectful  and  honourable 
apprehensions,  which,  whosoever  believeth  that  there  is 
a  God  at  all,  ought  to  entertain  and  cultivate  in  his  mind  ? 
Or  was  there  ever  in  the  world  a  conceivable  worse  ex- 
ample of  injustice  and  cruelty,  than  that  involved  in  the 
supposition  of  the  Almighty  Governor  of  the  universe 
choosing  out  his  best  and  most  accepted  servants  to  send 
them  on  a  message,  the  faithful  delivery  of  which  should 
bring  on  them  the  most  horrible  sufferings,  and  most  cruel 
deaths  ?  What  else  is  a  Moloch  ?  or  Belial  ?  What  other 
notion  can  we  have  of  a  demon  ?  What  dye  of  grimmer 
blackness  can  be  added  to  that  monster  of  your  conceit, 
whom  you  have  described  as  dealing  thus  with  those  who 
■  love  and  serve  him  best  :  whom  you  pourtray  as  a  tyrant, 
whose  commissions  are  fatal  to  those  who  hold  them,  who 
pays  his  best  servants  with  bloody  wages,  whose  embas- 
sies of  peace  are  borne  on  vulture's  wings,  whose  chari- 
ties are  administered  in  works  of  destruction,  whose  ten- 
der mercies  are  cruel  ? 

And  what  relevancy,  pray,  after  all,  between  the  suffer- 
25 


278  THE    ARGUMENT    OF    MARTYRDOM. 

ings  which  any  set  of  persons  may  voluntarily  undergo, 
and  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  any  doctrines  they  may  have 
maintained  ?  What  consequence  or  connection  between 
the  endurance  of  punishment,  and  the  utterance  of  truth, 
unless  we  have  some  means  of  being  assured  that  it  was 
impossible  that  any  body  should  have  been  punished  for 
uttering  falsehood,  and  so  outrage  all  notions  of  a  moral 
government  of  the  universe  ? 

Do  we,  then,  hold  a  revelation  from  God  to  be,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  absolutely  impossible  ? — We  answer,  no  ! 
Then,  by  what  other  possible  means  than  those  of  mira- 
cles, and  the  sufferings  of  those  who  were  the  immediate 
channels  of  the  divine  communication,  can  we  suppose 
the  revelation  to  be  conveyed  ?  "  They  shall  no  more  teach 
every  man  his  neighbour,  saying,  Know  the  Lord  !  for  they  shall 
all  know  him,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest ;  for  the  whole  earth 
shall  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  as  the 
waters  cover  the  sea." — Isaiah. 

A  person  who  had  sincerely  persuaded  himself  of  the 
divine  authority  of  whatever  purports  to  have  been  posi- 
tively commanded  or  forbidden  by  Christ,  would  never  be 
seen  to  darken  the  doors  of  either  church  or  chapel. — 
"  Thou  shalt  not  be  as  the  hypocrites  are  :  But  thou,  when  thou 
prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet,  and  when  thou  hast  shut  thy  door, 
pray  to  thy  father  which  is  in  secret.''^  What  is  the  act,  then, 
of  attending  public  worship,  but  an  act  of  public  hypocrisy  ? 
And  whose  authority  is  it,  that  they  respect,  who  fly  in  the 
teeth  of  so  positive  an  inhibition  ? 

But  this  would  spoil  religion  as  a  trade  ;  and  therefore, 
like  Christ's  professed  indifference  to  the  observation  of 
the  Sabbath,*  and  his  most  solemn  forbiddance  of  oath- 
taking,!  it  becomes  a  dead  letter,  which  every  body  reads, 
but  nobody  respects. 

The  impropriety  of  the  argument  as  it  respects  the  character  of 
Man. 
With  respect  to  the  character  of  man,  knowing  and 
feeling  as  we  do,  in  every  sentiment  of  our  minds,  in  every 
impression  on  our  senses,  our  liability  both  to  false  im- 
pressions and  erroneous  ideas,  and  that  these  are  compe- 
tent to  urge  men  to  act  and  suffer  to  the  same  extent  as 
the  most  accurate  impressions,  and  the  most  mathematical 
conclusions  ;  that  is,  that  men  are,  and  have  been  in  all 

*  Matt.  xii.  8.  t  Matt.  v.  34. 


THE    ARGUMENT    OP    MARTYRDOM.  279 

ages,  as  ready  to  become  martyrs  for  falsehood  as  for 
truth  :  We  ask, 

How  could  suffering's,  either  voluntarily  or  involuntarily 
incurred,  supply  any  sort  of  attestation  to  a  doctrine  ? 

If  such  sufferings  be  voluntarily  incurred,  when  they 
might  as  well  have  been  avoided,  what  is  to  excuse  such 
wanton  and  useless  suicide  ? 

Surely  the  act  of  suicide  is  precisely  the  same,  if  a  man 
rushes  on  a  drawn  sword,  which  he  sees  held  in  another 
man's  hand,  as  if  he  held  the  sword  himself.  —And, 

What  right  can  any  man  have  to  expect  that  other  men 
should  believe  him  affirming  to  a  fact  upon  the  testimony 
of  his  senses,  when  they  see  him  setting  the  testimony  of 
his  senses  at  defiance,  and  not  himself  subscribing  to  the 
argument  of  pain  and  smarting  ? 

If  such  sufferings  were  involuntary,  where  could  be  the 
merit,  or  what  proof  of  the  sincerity  of  the  sufferers  could 
they  involve  ? 

If  such  sufferings,  in  the  natural  course  of  things,  were  in- 
evitable upon  the  conduct  which  the  first  preachers  of  the 
.Gospel  adopted,  and  God  be  believed  to  be  the  author  and 
director  of  the  natural  course  of  things,  what  stronger  proof 
could  God  himself  be  conceived  to  give  us  that  that  con- 
duct was  wrong,  and  that  that  religion,  which  could  only 
be  propagated  by  such  conduct,  was  false  ? 

Nor  should  we  overlook  the  palpable  injustice  of  the 
argument  built  upon  the  long  ago,  and  probably  greatly  ex- 
aggerated sufferings,  of  the  martyrs  of  Christianity,  but 
which  takes  no  account  of  the  sincerity  and  self-denial  of 
its  conscientious  victims  ;  that  sympathizes,  like  Nero,  in 
dramatic  griefs,  but  forgets  its  own  Oakham ;  weeps  for 
the  scratched  finger  of  any  of  its  own  faction,  but  is  at 
ease  in  an  aceldama  of  persecuted  infidels. 

Extraordinary  fortitude,  exhibited  under  great  and  cruel 
sufferings,  could  only  be  considered  as  involving  an  argu- 
ment for  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  on  the  suppo- 
sition that  such  fortitude  was  properly  and  strictly  miracu- 
lous ;  a  supposition  directly  outraging  all  notions  of  either 
goodness  or  justice  in  the  Deity  who  should  choose  to 
work  a  sanguinary  and  horrible  miracle,  when  he  might 
at  once  have  better  accomplished  the  same  effect  by  better 
means. — And, 

Lastly,  in  the  case  of  Judas  Iscariot,  as  given  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  we  have  the  judgment  of  the  whole 


280  THE    ARGUMENT    OF    MARTYRDOM. 

apostolic  college  on  the  side  of  our  proposition  ;*  the  hor- 
rible and  cruel  death  of  the  traitor  being  there  specifically- 
adduced  as  an  argument  of  the  divine  displeasure  against 
him  ;  thereby  demonstrating  that,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
apostles  themselves,  the  coming  to  a  bad  end  should  be 
read  to  the  diametrically  opposite  inference  of  that  of 
martyrdom  ;  that  we  should  rather  conclude,  that  "  so  bad 
a  death  argues  a  monstrous  life  ;"  and  that  the  good  and 
gracious  Father  of  mankind  would  never  have  suffered 
those  who  had  sought  to  please  him,  or  preached  a  doc- 
trine that  was  agreeable  to  him,  to  have  had  any  occasion 
to  suffer  for  it. 

II.    That  the  argument  of  martyrdom  is  absolutely  not  true, 

Is  demonstrable,  distinctively,  on  these  four  grounds  : 
1st,  That  it  is  contrary  to  nature  ;  2nd,  That  it  is  contrary 
to  the  general  tenor  of  the  New  Testament  itself ;  3d,  That 
it  is  contrary  to  the  evidence  of  history  ;  4th,  That  it  is 
positively  denied  by  the  very  authorities  on  whose  testi- 
mony alone  it  could  be  pretended. 

1st.  It  is  contrary  to  nature. — Credulity  and  easiness  of 
belief  are  the  essential  characteristics  of  man,  and  espe- 
cially of  ignorant  man. 

There  was  nothing,  and  could  have  been  nothing  in  the 
lives  and  conduct  of  such  men  as  we  must  suppose  the 
first  preachers  of  Christianity  to  have  been,  but  must  have 
been  calculated  to  win  all  men's  hearts,  and  have  made 
them  the  great  objects  of  favour,  admiration,  love,  and 
confidence.  It  is  as  impossible  but  that  they  must  have 
found  friends,  as  it  is  impossible  that  Christianity  could 
have  been  propagated,  if  they  had  not  done  so.  We 
might  as  well  believe  in  St.  Augustin's  men  and  women 
without  heads,  as  imagine  that  there  were  ever  men,  or 
whole  races  of  men,  without  the  natural  affections  and 
rational  faculties  that  constitute  men  ;  or  that,  being  such, 
they  should  be  insensible  of  the  virtue,  goodness,  wisdom, 
and  miraculous  gifts  of  the  first  preachers  of  the  purest  and 
best  doctrine  that  ever  was  in  the  world,  or  have  suffered 
such  men  to  undergo  any  sort  of  wrong  or  oppression 
whatever.  It  outrages  probability  ;  it  is  unnatural  ;  it  is 
impossible  ;  it  is  inconceivable  ;  it  is  the  sheer  end  of  all 
discourse  of  reason. 

*  Of  course  making  the  assumption,  that  there  were  such  persons,  and  that  such 
were  their  acta  and  counsels,  argumenti  gratia. 


THE    ARGUMENT    OF    MARTYRDOM.  281 

2nd.  tt  is  contrary  to  the  general  tenor  of  the  J\/ew  Testament 
itself;  in  that  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke  is  addressed  to  the 
most  excellent  Xheophilus,  a  person  of  rank  and  distinc- 
tion sufficient  to  prove  that  the  Gospel,  at  the  time  of 
writing  it,  enjoyed  the  patronage  of  the  great  :  in  that 
Christ,  by  express  precept,  instructs  his  disciples,  that  if 
they  should  be  persecuted  in  one  city  they  should  fly  to  another, 
(Matt.  X.  23)  ;  a  precept  implying,  not  only  that  persecu- 
tion would  never  be  general;  but  authorizing  and  com- 
manding them  not  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  persecuted, 
but  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  it,  even  by  having  recourse  to 
a  lie  or  a  shirk,  when  occasion  should  call  for  "it :  which  is 
necessarily  included  in  every  act  of  absconding  or  flight. 

Jesus  Christ,  by  palpable  example,  shows  that  he  would 
rather  have  seen  the  whole  world  perish  than  he  would 
have  been  crucified,  if  he  could  by  any  means,  fair  or  foul, 
have  made  his  escape  ;  and  submitted  at  last  to  drink  the 
cup  only  because  it  was  impossible  that  it  should  pass  from 
him. 

The  Apostle  Peter  asks  of  the  Christians  to  whom  his 
epistles  are  addressed,  "  fVho  is  he  that  will  harm  you,  if  ye 
be  followers  of  that  ivhich  is  good  ?"*  a  sort  of  challenge  which 
could  not  have  been  given  if  the  Christians  ever  had  been 
called  to  suffer  on  account  of  their  religion  merely,  or 
were  in  any  state  of  liability  to  suffer  on  that  account. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  in  the  last  authentic  account  of  him, 
is  described  as  existing  in  a  state  of  perfect  security  and 
independence  in  Rome,  under  the  government  of  Nero 
himself,  and  is  so  far  from  charging  even  that  worst  of  all 
the  Roman  emperors  with  the  spirit  of  religious  intoler- 
ance, that  he  speaks  of  him  as  the  minister  of  God,  not  a  ter- 
ror to  good  works,  but  to  the  evil  ;f  a  sort  of  language  and 
doctrine  that  leaves  us  no  alternative,  but  that  either  the 
whole  of  ecclesiastical  history  is  a  tissue  of  falsehood,  or 
the  New  Testament  is  no  better. 

3d.  It  is  contrary  to  the  evidence  of  history. — Such  aban- 
doned and  unprincipled  wretches  as  the  state  justly  pun- 
ished for  their  crimes,  would  gladly  be  thought  martyrs 
rather  than  felons  ;  they  would  accuse  their  judges — as 
what  felons  would  not— of  partiality,  and  of  condemning 
them  for  being  Christians,  especially  as  there  were  never 
wanting  a  number  of  persons  sufficiently  stupid  and 
wicked  to  think  that  Christianity  itself  gave  them  a  right 

*  1  Peter  iii.  13.  f  Romana  xiii.  3. 


282  THE    ARGUMENT    OP    MARTYRDOM. 

and  privilege  to  commit,  crimes  with  impunity  (a  notion  that 
wants  not  countenance  in  the  New  Testament  itself*)  ; 
and  these  persons,  when  suffering  the  due  rewards  of  their 
deeds,  would  not  fail  to  claim  and  receive  the  credit  of 
being  martyrs.  The  offensive  conduct  of  such  persons 
could  not  have  failed  to  have  occasioned  innumerable 
mistakes,  in  which  the  innocent  may  have  suffered  with 
the  guilty,  and  the  Pagans  may,  upon  the  stimulus  of  in- 
tense provocation,  have  taken  sometimes  severe  and  ex- 
cessive revenge  on  the  insults  put  on  their  religion.  A 
Jeffries,  a  Bonnor,  or  a  city  of  London  Recorder,^  might 
occasionally  have  sat  on  a  Pagan  bench,  but  it  does  not 
appear  that  the  Roman  senate  or  magistracy,  generally, 
ever  lent  countenance  to  any  public  measures  of  religious 
persecution.  The  code  of  Roman  laws  contains  not  a 
vestige  of  any  statute  that  was  ever  enacted  against 
Christians.  Nerva,  Trajan,  Adrian,  the  Antonines,  and 
Julian,  were  men  of  the  nicest  sense  of  honour,  and  of  so 
strict  and  passionate  an  attachment  to  the  principle  of 
justice^  that  it  is  rather  conceivable  that  they  would  have 
suffered  martyrdom  themselves  than  have  put  it  into  the 
power  of  their  worst  enemy  to  attaint  the  purity  of  their 
administration.  "  If  a  man  were  called  to  fix  the  period 
in  the  history  of  the  world  during  which  the  condition  of 
the  human  race  was  most  happy  and  prosperous,  he  would 
without  hesitation  name  that  which  elapsed  from  the  death 
of  Domitian  to  the  accession  of  Commodus."| 

That  period  embraces  eighty-four  years,  from  the  96th 
of  the  Christian  era  to  the  180th,  during  which  reigned 
Nerva,  Trajan,  Adrian,  Antoninus  Pius,  and  Antoninus 
the  Philosopher.  Nor  can  any  age  or  any  country  in  the 
world  boast  of  a  succession  of  reigning  princes  of  equal 
virtue,  wisdom,  and  humanity.  The  best  of  our  most  reli- 
gious and  gracious  kings  that  ever  swayed  the  sceptre  over 
a  Christian  people,  was  never  worthy  to  be  compared  with 
any  one  of  these  successively  excellent  sovereigns.  "  The 
edicts  of  Adrian  and  Antoninus  Pius  expressly  declared, 
that  the  voice  of  the  multitude  should  never  be  admitted 
as  legal  evidence  to  convict  or  to  punish  the  unfortunate 

*  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin."  (1  John  i.  7.) — "  If  our 
unrighteousness  coinmendeth  the  righteousnsss  of  God."    (Rom.  iii.  5.) 

t  The  little  barbarian,  in  calling  for  judgment  on  the  author,  pleaded  for  the 
expediency  of  violent  and  corporeal  punishment,  on  Feb.  7,  1828. 

t  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  vol.  1,  p.  126. 


THE    ARGUMENT    OF    MARTYRDOM.  HiiUS 

persons  who  had  embraced  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Chris- 
tians."* 

What  extraordinary  motive,  what  new  and  never  before 
heard  of  spring  of  hmiian  action  can  have  been  brought 
into  play,  to  set  men  all  at  once  persecuting  the  very  best 
of  religions,  who  had  never  persecuted  any  otlier  that  ever 
was  in  the  world  ;  and  to  induce  those  unquestionably  wise 
and  good  men,  whose  justice  and  generosity  had  never 
been  impeached  till  then,  just  then  to  lay  aside  their  jus- 
tice and  generosity,  to  be  wise  and  good  men  no  longer, 
but  to  be  converted  into  persecutors,  and  to  become 
enemies  to  the  death  of  the  meek  and  innocent  follow- 
ers of  an  offenceless  faith  ?  Surely  here  is  problem  with- 
out solution,  eflect  without  cause,  and  improbability 
without  evidence.  To  believe  that  the  first  preachers  of 
Christianity,  or  their  immediate  successors,  were  the  vic- 
tims of  persecution,  we  must  sliut  out  the  evidence  of  all 
other  liistories  but  such  as  they  themselves  put  into  our 
hands,  and  determine  to  believe  not  only  without  evidence, 
but  in  direct  contradiction  to  it.  Nor  even  will  such  a 
degree  of  obstinacy  make  sure  work  for  our  persuasion 
that  the  Christians  generally  testified  their  sincerity  by 
martyrdom,  since, 

4th.  It  is  positively  denied  by  the  very  authorities  on  whose  testi- 
mony alone  it  could  be  pretended. — "  In  the  time  of  Tertullian 
and  Clemens  of  Alexandria,  the  glory  of  martyrdom,  with 
the  universal  consent  of  the  Christian  community,  was 
confined  to  the  singularly  distinguished  personages  St.  Pe- 
ter, St.  Paul,  and  St.  James. "f 

St.  James  is  said  to  have  been  murdered  by  St.  Paul, 
and  therefore  his  death  ought  not  to  be  laid  to  the  charge 
of  Pagan  persecution. 

The  martyrdom  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  is  contrary  to 
the  indications  of  the  New  Testament  itself,  and  rests  on 
no  better  credit  than  that  of  the  Apostolic  history  of  Ab- 
dias,  which  the  church  has  rejected  as  apocryphal. 

"  Dionysius,  the  friend  of  Origen,  reckons  in  the  im- 
mense city  of  Alexandria,  and  under  the  rigorous  persecu- 
tion of  Decius,  only  ten  men,  and  seven  women,  who  suf- 
fered for  the  profession  of  the  Christian  name  :"  and  Origen 
himself  declares,  in  the  most  express  terms,  that  the  num- 
ber of  martyrs  was  very  inconsiderable. 

•  Gibbon,  vol.  2,  p.  422.  -f  Ibid,  vol.  2,  p.  427. 


284  THE    ARGUMENT    OF    MARTYRDOM. 

Specimens  of  Martyrology. 

The  Roman  legends  tell  of  ten  thousand  Christian  sol- 
•  diers  who  were  crucified  in  one  day  by  order  of  the  Em- 
peror Trajan,  or  Adrian,  on  Mount  Ararat ;  on  the  strength 
of  no  better  authority  than  which,  our  church  of  England 
daily  repeats  the  palpable  and  egregious  falsehood,  "  The 
noble  army  of  martyrs  praise  thee  /"  The  fact  itself  is  of  such 
a  nature,  even  in  the  judgment  of  sincere  Christians,  as  to 
be  pronounced  not  only  not  true,  but  utterly,  physically 
and  morally,  impossible  to  be  true. 

And  of  this  character,  and  no  better,  are  all  the  stories 
of  martyrdom  endured  by  Polycarp,  Ignatius,  and  others, 
under  the  humane  and  just  Trajan,  and  the  martyrdoms  of 
Sanctus,  Maturus,  Pothinus,  Ponticus,  Attalus,  Blandina, 
and  all  the  martyrs  of  Vienna  and  Lyons,  who,  if  we  will 
believe  Eusebius,  Addison,  and,  I  blush  to  say,  Lardner, 
suffered  under  the  administration  of  Antoninus  Verus, 
were  fryed  to  death  in  red  hot  iron  chairs,  and  suffered 
such  torments,  as  to  be  sure  it  was  physically  impossible 
that  they  should  have  suffered. 

"  The  holy  martyrs,"  says  the  veracious  historian,  "  un- 
derwent such  torments  as  are  above  all  description."  How- 
ever he  makes  an  attempt  to  describe  them,  and  tells  us, 
that  "the  tormenters  who  were  employed  to  torment  (the 
young  lady)  Blandina,  tortured  her  all  manner  of  ways 
from  morning  till  evening,  relieving  each  other  by  turns, 
till  they  themselves  became  feeble  and  faint  with  exertion, 
and  acknowledged  themselves  overcome,  there  being 
nothing  more  that  they  could  do  to  her ;  and  they  won- 
dered that  she  had  any  breath  left,  her  whole  body  having 
been  tortured  and  mangled  ;  and  they  declared,  that  any 
one  torture  used  by  them  was  sufficient  to  deprive  her  of 
life,  much  more  so  many  and  so  great.  But  that  blessed 
woman  renewed  her  strength,  and  it  was  a  refreshment  and 
ease  to  her  ;  and  though  her  whole  hotly  was  tome  to  pieces, 
yet  by  pronouncing  the  words,  'I  am  a  Christian,  neither 
have  we  committed  any  evil,'  she  was  immediately  recreated 
and  refreshed,  and  felt  no  pain.  So  after  the  executioners 
had  given  up  the  business  of  attempting  to  kill  her,  which 
they  were  by  no  means  able  to  accomplish,  she  was  hung 
up  in  chains,  dangling  within  the  rea6h  of  wild  beasts. 
And  this,  no  doubt,  was  so  done  by  the  ordinance  of  God, 
that  she,  hanging  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  might,  by  her  in- 
cessant prayers,  procure  cheerfulness  of  mind  to  the  suf- 


THE    ARGUMENT    OP    MARTYRDOM-  285 

fering  saints.  After  she  had  hung  thus  a  long  while,  and 
the  wild  beasts  had  not  ventured  to  touch  her,  she  was 
taken  down  and  cast  into  prison,  to  be  reserved  for  further 
torments ;  where  she  still  continued  preaching  and  en- 
couraging her  fellow  Christians,  rejoicing  and  triumphing 
in  all  that  she  had  gone  through,  as  if  she  had  only  been 
invited  to  a  wedding  dinner  :  whereupon  they  broiled  her 
whole  body  in  a  frying-pan  ;  which  she  not  at  all  regardihg, 
they  took  her  out  and  wrapt  her  in  a  net,  and  cast  her  into 
a  mad  bull,  who  foamed  and  tossed  her  upon  his  horns  to 
and  fro,  yet  had  she  no  feeling  of  pain  in  all  these  things, 
her  mind  being  wholly  engaged  in  conference  with  Christ. 
So  that  at  length,  when  no  more  could  be  done  unto  her, 
she  was  beheaded,  the  Pagans  themselves  confessing,  that 
never  any  woman  was  heard  of  among  them  to  have  suf- 
fered so  many  and  so  great  torments."* 

As  for  Sanctus,  deacon  of  Vienna,  when  there  was 
nothing  more  that  they  could  do  to  him,  "  they  clapped  red 
hot  plates  of  brass  upon  the  most  tender  parts  of  his  body, 
which  fryed,  seared,  and  scorched  him  all  over,  yet  re- 
mained he  immoveable  and  undaunted,  being  cooled, 
refreshed,  and  strengthened  with  heavenly  dews  of  the 
water  of  life  gushing  from  the  womb  of  Christ  ;f  his  body 
being  all  over  wound  and  scar,  contracted  and  drawn  to- 
gether, having  lost  the  external  shape  of  a  man.  In  whom 
Christ  suffering,  performed  great  wonders  :  for  when  those 
wicked  men  began  again  to  torture  him,  supposing  that  if 
they  should  make  use  of  the  same  tortures,  while  his  body 
was  swollen,  and  his  wounds  inflamed,,  they  should  master 
him,  or  that  he  would  die,  not  only  no  such  thing  happen- 
ed, but,  beyond  all  men's  expectation,  by  those  latter  tor- 
ments his  body  got  relief  from  all  the  disease  it  had  con- 
tracted by  what  he  had  before  suffered  ;  he  recovered  the 
use  of  his  limbs  which  he  had  lost  ;  he  got  rid  of  his  pains  ; 
so  that,  through  the  grace  of  Christ,  the  second  torture 
that  they  put  him  to,  proved  to  be  a  remedy  and  a  cure  to 
him,  instead  of  a  punishment.  "| 

*  Quoted  from  Eusebius  by  Lardner,  vol.  4,  p.  83,  and  revised  from  the  origi- 
nal by  the  author.  Notwithstanding  the  gravity  of  Lardner  and  Addison  on  this 
subject,  I  mightily  suspect  that  this  Lady  Blandina  was  nothing  else  than  a  Shrove- 
Tuesday  pancake  ; — a  sort  of  Sir  John  Barleycorn.  She  would  not  be  the  first 
divine  sufferer  who  had  been  made  of  a  bit  of  dough.— Compare  with  pp.  58,  and 
238,  of  this  DiEGEsis.  "^  ^^       ' 

i  The  taomb  of  Christ :  so  Dr.  Hanmer  renders  it.  It  is  not  the  only  pas- 
sage which  serves  to  render  the  sex  of  Christ  equivocal. 

t  Lardner's  translation,  as  far  as  it  is  followed,  vol.  4,  p.  87  ;  the  rest  original 
from  Euseb.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  5,  c.  1.  ^ 


286  THE    ARGUMENT    OP    MARTYRDOM. 

Such  is  a  fair  specimen  of  ecclesiastical  history,  and 
such  the  trash  which  must  be  held  to  be  credible,  if  the 
argument  of  martyrdom  be  so. 

Against  such  evidence,  which  may  well  be  considered  as 
setting  comment  at  defiance,  we  every  now  and  then 
stumble  on  admissions  of  the  Christian  Fathers  themselves 
that  entirely  exhonerate  the  Pagan  magistracy,  not  only 
from  such  charges  as  might  be  inferred  from  any  suppose- 
able  ground  or  outline  of  original  truth  in  such  narrations 
as  these,  but  which  clear  them  from  all  suspicion  of  ever 
having  countenanced  persecution  on  the  score  of  religion, 
in  any  case  whatever.  Tertullian  challenges  the  Roman 
Senate  to  name  him  one  of  their  emperors,  on  whose  reign 
they  themselves  had  not  set  a  stigma,  who  had  ever  per- 
secuted the  Christians  ;  and  the  modest  and  rational  Me- 
lito,  bishop  of  Sardis,  in  applying  for  redress  (which  was 
instantly  granted)  to  Marcus  Antoninus  from  some  griev- 
ances which  religious  people  at  that  time  had  cause  to 
complain  of,  expressly  states,  that  a  -similar  cause  of  com- 
plaint had  never  before  existed. 

Even  if  the  evidence  of  the  reality  of  martyrdoms  in- 
curred for  the  conscientious  maintenance  of  the  Christian 
faith  in  former  times,  were  a  thousand-fold  more  than  it 
is  (which  it  could  easily  be),  or  more  than  is  pretended 
(which  it  could  not  easily  be)  it  surely  could  not  avail 
against  the  evidence  of  our  own  absolute  experience,  that 
the  merit  of  this  argument  in  our  times,  stands  altogether 
and  exclusively  on  the  side  of  infidelity.  None  are  the 
persecutors  but  Christians  themselves.  None  are  the  vic- 
tims of  persecution,  or  liable  to  be  so,  but  the  conscien- 
tious and  honourable  opponents  of  Christianity.  It  is  the 
deniers  and  impugners  of"  revelation,  who  alone  give  evi- 
dence of  sincere  conviction,  in  the  voluntary  abdication 
of  station  and  affluence,  and  in  the  endurance  of  the  most 
cruel  and  trying  sufferings.  It  is  our  own  times  that  have 
witnessed  the  virtue  that  has  preferred  the  cell  of  solitary 
confinement,  and  the  fate  of  felons  and  culprits  with  an 
approving  conscience,  to  the  professorial  chair,  the  rec- 
tor's mansion,  or  the  prebendal  stall,  that  might  have  been 
held  as  the  wages  of  iniquity. 

They  are  Christians,  and  of  Christians  the  loudest  and 
most  ostentatious  professors  of  Christianity,  who  alone 
discover  the  dispositions  and  tempers  of  persecutors,  and 
are,  of  all  persecutors,  the  most  implacable,  most  cruel, 
most  inexorable. — While  those  who  are  most  conspicuous 


THE    APOSTOLIC    FATHERS.  287 

in  their  professions  of  deprecating  persecution,  and  who 
"  lament  tliat  ever  the  arm  of  the  law  should  be  called  in 
to  vindicate  their  cause,"  deprecate  and  lament  it  avow- 
edly on  no  other  ground  than  that  of  their  fear  that  it 
should  render  its  victims  objects  of  a  pity  and  sympathy 
of  which  themselves  are  incapable. — In  their  own  right 
charitable  phrase,  they  fear  lest  persecution  should  '■'■go  near 
to  place  the  martyr''s  crown  on  the  loathsome  hydra  of  infidelity  ;" 
that  is,  they  are  not  sorry  for  the  sufferer,  but  they  are 
sorry  that  any  body  else  should  be  sorry  for  him.  They 
would  not  spare  the  poor  victim  a  single  pang,  nor  take  a 
knot  out  of  the  lash  that  is  laid  on  him,  nor  whisper  a 
comfortable  syllable  in  his  ear,  nor  reach  a  cup  of  water  to 
his  lip,  nor  wipe  away  a  tear  from  his  cheek,  nor  soothe 
his  fainting  spirit  with  a  sigh  ; — but  they  are  sorry  for  the 
disturbance  of  the  welkin — they  begrudge  liim  the  pity 
and  compassion  due  to  his  sorrows.  If  some  way  could  be 
invented  to  do  the  business  without  a  noise,  it  seems,  for 
all  their  charity,  it  might  be  very  well  done. 

One  might  fill  libraries  with  works  of  Christian  divines 
in  protest  against  the  principle  of  persecution — one  act  of 
any  Christian  divine  whatever,  in  accordance  with  the 
sincerity  of  such  a  protest,  would  be  one  more  than  the 
world  has  ever  heard  of.  Never  did  the  sun  see  a  Chris- 
tian hand  drawn  out  of  the  bosom  to  prevent  persecution, 
to  resist  its  violence,  to  say  to  it  tvhat  doest  thou  ?  or  to  re- 
dress the  wrong  that  it  had  done. — Of  what,  then  are  such 
protests  evidence — but  of  the  foulest,  the  grossest  hypocrisy  ; 
— hypocrisy,  than  which  imagination  can  concei^ve  no 
greater. —    James,  ii.  15,  16. 

The  demonstrations  of  Euclid,  therefore,  are  not  more 
mathematically  complete  than  the  ratiocinative  certainty 
that  the  whole  argument  of  martyrdom,  upon  which  the 
most  popular  treatises  on  the  evidences  of  the  Christian 
religion  are  founded,  is  as  false  as  God  is  true. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

THE    APOSTOLIC    FATHERS. 

The  Apostolic  Fathers,  is  the  honourable  distinction  given 
to  those  orthodox  professors  of  the  Christian  religion,  who 
are  believed  to  have  lived  and  written  at  some  time  within 


288  THE    APOSTOLIC    FATHERS. 

the  first  hundred  years,  so  as  to  stand  within  a  conceivable 
probability  of  having  seen  or  conversed  with  some  or 
other  of  the  twelve  apostles,  and  to  have  received  their 
doctrine  thus  inunediately  from  the  fountain  heads. 

.  There  are  upwards  of  seventy  claimants  of  this  honour, 
exclusive  of  such  as  the  pseudo  Linus,  and  Abdias,  bishop 
of  Babylon,  who  pretends  to  have  seen  Christ  himself, 
thoug-h  no  such  person,  no  such  bisliop,  and  no  such  bish- 
opric ever  existed.  The  majority  of  these  are  mere 
imaginary  names  of  imaginary  persons,  wliose  various  ac- 
tions and  sufferings  are  altogether  the  creation  of  romance. 
The  historians  of  the  first  three  centuries  of  Christianity 
have  taken  so  great  a  licence  in  this  way,  as  that  no  one 
alleged  fact  standing  on  their  testimony  can  be  said  to 
have  even  a  probable  degree  of  evidence.  The  most  can- 
did and  learned  even  of  Christian  inquirers,  liave  admitted, 
that  antiquity  is  most  deficient  just  exactly  where  it  is 
most  important ;  that  there  is  absolutely  nothing  known 
of  the  church  history  in  those  times  on  which  a  rational 
man  could  place  any  reliance  ;  and  that  the  epocha  when 
Christian  truth  first  dawned  upon  the  world,  is  appropri- 
ately designated  as  the  Jlge  of  Fable.* 

The  title  of  Apostolic  Fathers,  is  given  only  to  the  five 
individuals,  St.  Barnabas,  St.  Clement,  St.  Hermas,  St. 
Ignatius,  and  St.  Polycarp,  of  whom  the  three  former  have 
honouralDle  mention  in  the  New  Testament ;  the  two  lat- 
ter are  believed  to  have  suffered  martyrdom,  and  each  is 
supposed  to  be  the  author  of  the  respective  epistles  which 
have  come  down  to  us  under  their  names,  which,  notwith- 
standing, the  church  has  seen  reason  to  take  for  no  better 
than  they  arc^-supernumerarTj  forgeries.  Had  they,  how- 
ever, been  retained  in  the  canon  of  sacred  Scripture,  we 
should  have  had  folios  of  evidence  in  demonstration  of  their 
authenticity  ;  and  withal  the  demonstration  (which  all  re- 
ligionists appeal  to  whenever  they  can)  of  penalties,  fines, 
imprisonment,  and  infinite  persecution,  on  all  who  had  un- 
derstanding and  integrity  to  treat  them  with  the  contempt 
which  every  thing  of  the  kind  merits. 


ST.  BARNABAS — Bishop  of  Milan, 
Was  a  Levite  of  the  country  of  Cyprus,  and  one  of  .those 
Christians  who,  having  land,  sold  it,   and  brought  the 

*  Rerum  gestarum  fides  exinde  graviter .  laboraverit  nee  oibis  terrarum  tantum 
sed  et  Dei  ecclesia  de  temporibus  suis  mysticis  merito  queratur. — Dr.  Fell,  Bishop 
of  Oxford. 


THE  APOSTOLIC»FATHERS.  '     289 

money  and  laid  it  at  the  apostles'  feet ;  whereupon  they 
changed  his  name  from  loses  into  Barnabas,  which  signi- 
fies the  son  of  consolation.  So  that  he  literally  bought  his  apos- 
tleship  ;  and  having  gratified  the  avarice  of  the  holy  con- 
clave, their  historian  bears  him  the  honourable  testimony, 
that  he  was  a  good  man,  fall  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith. 
(Acts  xi.  24.)  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria  has  often  quoted 
the  epistle  that  goes  under  his  name  as  the  composition  of 
an  inspired  apostle.  In  the  catalogue  of  Dorotheus  it  is 
said,  "  Barnabas  was  a  minister  of  the  word  together  with 
Paul  ;  he  preached  Christ  first  at  Rome,  and  was  after- 
wards made  bishop  of  Milan  :"  and  in  the  translator's  pre- 
face to  that  catalogue,  it  is  asserted,  on  I  know  not  what 
authority,  that  Barnabas  had  a  rope  tied  about  his  neck, 
and  was  therewith  pulled  to  the  stake  and  burned.  We 
have  no  account  of  any  miracles  which  Barnabas  wrought 
in  his  lifetime,  which  seems  rather  hard  dealing  with  him 
on  the  part  of  the  apostolic  firm,  since  he  had  paid  a  very 
handsome  consideration  to  be  admitted  into  full  partner- 
ship. The  amende  honourable  was  made  to  his  relics  in  af- 
ter ages  ;  they  became  wonderfully  efficacious  in  healing 
all  manner  of  diseases.  His  dead  body  had  the  distin- 
guished honour  of  giving  a  certificate  to  the  genuineness 
of  the  gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  which  was  found  lying  upon 
his  breast,  written  in  his  own  hand,  when  his  body  was 
dug  up  in  the  island  of  Cyprus,  so  late  as  the  year  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  489  ;*  so  rapidly  was  the 
Christian  faith,  and  consequently  the  efficacy  of  the  relics 
of  the  saints,  extending. 

"  Any  one  who  reads  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  with,  but  a 
small  degree  of  attention,"  says  Dr.  Lardner,  "will  per- 
ceive in  it  many  Pauline  phrases  and  reasonings.  To  give 
the  character  of  the  author  of  it,  in  one  word,  he  resem- 
bles St.  Paul,  as  his  fellow  labourer,  without  copying  him." 

Paley  quotes  only  the  single  passage  from  the  apocry- 
phal epistle,  which,  he  says,  is  probably  genuine,  ascribed 
to  the  apostle  Barnabas,  containing  the  words,  "  Finally 
teaching  the  people  of  Israel,  and  doing  many  wonders 
and  signs  among  them ;  he  (Christ)  preached  to  them,  and 
showed  the  exceeding  great  love  which  he  bare  towards 
them."! 

*  Sigebertum  Gemblacensem  ad  a.  c.  489,  itemque  alios  legas  snb  Zenonis  im- 
perio  in  insula  Cypro  repertum  S.  Bamabse  corpus,  et  super  pectore  ejus,  Evangel- 
ium  S.  Matthaei  iSioyQatpov  rov  Baqvafia. — Fabricii,  torn.  1,  p.  341. 

t  Foley's  Evid.  vol.  l,p.  119. 


290  THE  APO^OLIC    FATHERS. 

To  so  clear  and  distinct  a  testimony  to  Christ  and  his 
miracles,  I  subjoin  an  equally  sublime  specimen  of  this 
apostle's  inspired  reasoning,  from  Archbishop  Wake's 
translation  : — 

"  Understand  therefore,  my  children,  these  things  more 
fully,  that  Abraham,  who  was  the  first  that  brought  in 
circumcision,  looking  forward  in  the  spirit  to  Jesus  cruci- 
fied, received  </ie  mystery  of  three  letters;  for  the  Scripture 
says,  that  Abraham  circumcised  three  hundred  and  eigh- 
teen men  of  his  house.  But  what,  therefore,  was  the  mys- 
tery that  was  made  known  unto  him  ?  Mark,  first,  the 
eighteen^  and  next  the  three  hundred  :  for  the  numeral  let- 
ters of  ten  and  eight  are  I  H,  and  these  denote  Jesus ;  and 
because  the  cross  was  that  whereby  we  were  to  find  grace, 
therefore  he  adds  three  hundred,  the  note  of  which  is  T  ; 
wherefore,  by  two  letters  he  signifies  Jesus,  and  by  the 
third,  his  cross. 

"  He  who  has  put  the  engrafted  gift  of  his  doctrine 
within  us,  knows  that  I  never  taught  to  any^  one  a  more 
certain  truth  than  this  ;  but  I  trust  that  ye "  are  worthy 
of  it.* 

"  Consider  how  God  hath  joined  both  the  cross  and  the 
water  together  ;  for  thus  he  saith,  blessed  are  they  who 
put  their  trust  in  the  cross,  and  descend  into  the  water. f 

"  Jesus  Christ  is  the  heifer  ;  the  wicked  men  who  were 
to  offer  it,  were  those  sinners  who  brought  him  to  death. 

"  But  why  were  there  three  young  meh  appointed  to 
sprinide .''  Why,  to  denote  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob. 
And  why  was  the  loool  put  upon  a  stick  ?  Why,  but  because 
the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  was  founded  upon  wood.| 
Blessed  be  our  Lord,  who  has  given  us  this  wisdom,  and 
a  heart  to  understand  his  secrets.  "§ 


SAINT    CLEMENT,  A.  D.  96. 

Bishop  of  Rome. 
St.  Clement  is  with  great  confidence  considered  to  be 
the  individual  honourably  mentioned  by  St.  Paul  in  those 
words,  "  help  those  women  which  laboured  with  me  in  the 
Gospel,  with  Clement  also,  and  with  other  my  fellow  labourers 
tohose  names  are  in  the   book  of  ii/e."||     He  is  ordinarily 

*  Bamabas's  Catholic  Epist.  in  Wake,  p.  176. 

t  Ibid.  p.  180.  :tlbid.  p.  174. 

§  Ibid.  p.  169.  II  PhU.  iv.  8. 


THE    APOSTOLIC  FATHERS.  291 

called  Clemens  Romanus,  as  having  been  bishop  of  Rome,  in 
the  first  centuiy,  to  distinguish  him  from  the  no  less  illus- 
trious Clemens  Jllexandrinus,  who  was  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
about  a  hundred  years  after.  In  the  Chronography  gener- 
ally attached  to  Evagrius's  Ecclesiastical  History,  his 
name  is  arranged  as  third  in  succession  of  the  bishops  of 
Rome  from  St.  Peter,  the  order  standing  thus  :  St.  Peter, 
St.  Linus,  St.  Annicetus,  or  Anencletus,  St.  Clement.* 
There  is  but  one  ancient  manuscript  of  his  writings  in  ex- 
istence :t  his  first  epistle  only  is  held  to  be  genuine. 
Measureless  are  the  forgeries  which  Christian  piety  and 
conscientiousness  had  for  ages  put  upon  the  world  under 
his  name. 

It  is  not  without  shrewd  reason  that  the  epistle  which 
Paley  quotes  has  been  rejected  from  the  place  which  it 
for  many  ages  held  in  the  volume  of  the  New  Testament 
itself. 

The  passage,  however,  generally  adduced  from  this 
epistle  to  prove  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
is  too  brief,  and  too  evidently  itself  taken  from  some  other 
authority,  to  admit  of  the  fact  being  received  on  the  evi- 
dence of  this  one  single  sentence,  in  one  solitary  manu- 
script of  an  author  upon  whom  so  many  Christian  forgeries 
have  been  committed. 

Clement  evidently  refers  to  some  existing  and  generally 
received  accounts  of  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul,  of  which  accounts  his  Philippian  converts  must  have 
been  in  possession  ere  they  could  be  thus  loosely  and  gen- 
erally called  on  to  "  take  them  as  examples." 

Of  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Paul,  not  the  least  account  is 
traceable  in  the  New  Testament ;  but  the  very  reverse  of 
the  probability  of  such  a  consummation  of  his  history  is 
indicated  iij  the  last  allusion  to  him  which  the  sacred  text 
contains  :  "  And  Paul  dioelt  two  whole  years  in  his  own  hired 
house,  and  received  all  that  came  in  unto  him,  preaching  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  teaching  those  things  which  concern  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all  confidence,  no  man  forbidding  him." 
— Acts  xxviii.  31, 

This,  in  Rome — this,  under  the  reign  of  the-  tyrant 
Nero — this,  when  the  tyrant  Nero  was  not  only  reigning, 
but  resident  in   Rome,  unquestionably  looks  much  askew 

*  "  He  had  been  first  bishop  of  Sardis,  and  was  afterwards  translated  to  the 
more  lucrative  see  of  Rome." — Dorotheus.  So  early  was  the  ofiice  of  a  bishop 
a  good  thing  ! 

t  Lardner,  vol.  l,p.  290. 


292  THE    APOSTOLIC  FATHERS. 

on  the  probability  of  those  horrible  stories  of  peaceably 
and  quietly  conducted  Christians  being  put  to  such  horri- 
ble torments,  as  the  interest  of  those  who  would  harrow 
up  our  feelings  with  those  stories,  requires  us  to  believe. 

Of  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Peter,  in  like  manner,  the  only 
authentic  record  in  the  case  deposeth  not  a  syllable.  The 
last  mention  of  his  name  in  the  canonical  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  informs  us,  that  after  having  successfully  set  the 
power  of  the  magistrates  at  defiance,  burst  out  of  chains 
that  "/e//  off  from  his  hands,^''  and  passed  through  an  iron 
gate,  "  lohich  opened  to  him  of  his  own  accord^  he  went  doxon 
from  Judaea  to  Cmsarea,  and  there  abode. ''^*  This  is  the  scrip- 
tiiral  account  of  the  matter  ;  and  though  no  story  in  the 
Arabian  Nights  Entertainments  could  possibly  be  more  ab- 
surd, yet  nothing  in  ecclesiastical  history  could  be  more 
authentic. 

On  what  authority,  then,  can  St.  Clement  be  supposed 
to  remind  the  Philippians,  that  "  Peter,  by  unjust  envy, 
underwent  not  one  or  two,  but  many  sufferings,  till  at  last, 
being  martyred,  he  went  to  the  place  of  glory  that  was 
due  unto  him  ;"  and  that  "  Paul,  in  like  manner,  at  last 
suffered  martyrdom  by  the  command  of  the  governors,  and 
departed  out  of  the  world,  and  went  unto  his  holy  place, 
being  become  a  most  eminent  pattern  of  patience  unto  all 
ages  ?' '  Surely  the  modernism  of  this  manner  of  descrip- 
tion must  strike  almost  the  dullest  apprehension.  Here 
are  neither  place,  nor  time,  nor  circumstance  specified,  as 
we  should  look  for  them  in  an  historical  statement.  And 
"  by  the  command  of  the  governors,"  forsooth  !  Oh,  yes  ; 
any  governors  you  please  :  Bonaparte,  or  the  Great  Mo- 
gul, I  suppose.     It  is  outrageous  romance  !  i 

The  merit  of  the  invention,  however,  belongs  to  other 
hands.  It  will  be  found,  on  a  critical  investigation,  that 
the  source  from  whence  Clement  drew,  and  frofti  which  is 
derived  also  the  common  belief  that  the  apostles  suffered 
martyrdom,  is  the  Famous  and  Renowned  Apostolic 
History  of  Abdias,  the  first  bishop  of  Babylon,  who  {if  ice 
will  believe,)  had  been  ordained  immediately  by  the  apos- 
tles themselves,  and  who  with  his  own  eyes  had  seen  the 
Lord. 

These  ten  books  of  Abdias,  though  rejected  entirely  by 
the  shrewder  prudence  of  modern  Christianity,  contain  the 
continuance  of  that  broken  and  irregular  jumble  of  the  real 
journal  of  some  Egyptian   missionaries  with  the  fabulous 


THE    APOSTOLIC    FATHERS.  293 

adventures  of  imaginary  apostles,  which  the  church  retains 
under  the  name  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

Nothing  can  be  more  sophistical  than  the  whole  plan  of 
reasoning,  and  system  of  exhibition  observed  throughout 
the  laborious  volumes  of  Lardner.  His  method  is  to  sift 
the  works  of  these  Fathers  for  any  expression  of  similar 
character  or  cast  of  thought  to  such  as  are  found  in  the 
New  Testament,  upon  which  similarity  he  would  draw 
the  inference  that  they  must  have  read  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  have  held  it  in  the  light  of  a  divine  revelation  ; 
while  he  passes  over  the  egregious  anachronisms,  the 
gross  blunders,  and  the  monstrous  absurdities,  which  show 
those  writings  to  be  such  as  any  one  who  sincerely  wished 
to  serve  theChristian  cause  would  wish  had  never  ex- 
isted. As  they  appear  in  Lardner's  management,  the 
reader  is  deceived  into  an  apprehension  that  they  were  at 
least  respectable. 

St.  PauPs  1st  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  is  the  only 
book  of  the  New  Testament  quoted  by  Clement.  As  a 
parallel  to  1  Cor.  xv.  20,  "  But  noiois  Christ  risen  from  the 
dead,  and  become  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  slept,''''  Dr.  Lard- 
ner quotes  from  the  24th  chapter  of  the  first  of  Clement, 
the  words,  "  Let  us  consider,  beloved,  how  the  Lord  does 
continually  show  us  that  there  shall  be  a  resurrection,  of 
which  he  has  made  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  the  first  fruits, 
having  raised  him  from  the  dead  ;"  where,  in  the  same 
chapter  of  Clement,  follows  an  argument  from  seeds,  re- 
sembling St.  Paul's,  1  Cor.  xv.  36,  37,  38  ;  but  where  Dr. 
Lardner  wholly  omits  to  let  us  know  that  Clement's  main 
argument  for  the  resurrectien  is  not  taken  from  the  cele- 
brated 15th  chapter  of  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  but 
from  the  no  less  celebrated  and  far  more  entertaining  1 5th 
book  of  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,*  where  is  the  whole  story 
of  the  phoenix  regenerating  itself  from  its  own  ashes, 
and  returning  every  five  hundred  years,  to  die  and  revive 
again  in  the  flames  upon  the  idolatrous  altars  of  the  tem- 
ple of  the  sun  : — an  argument  which  it  is  utterly  impossi- 
ble that  St.  Clement  could  have  used,  had  the  gospels 
then  in  existence  been  considered  as  of  higher  credibility 
than  the  stories  of  Ovid,  or  had  he  himself  believed  that 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  was  more  probable  than  the  fa- 
ble of  the  phoBnix. 

*  Haec  tamen  ex  aliis  ducunt  primordia  rebus  f 
Una  est  quae  reparet  seque  ipsa  reseminet,  ales  : 
Assyrii  Phoenicia  vocant.  Ovid.  Metamorph.  lib.  15,  line  391. 


294  THE    APOSTOLIC    FATHERS. 

SAINT  HERMAS,  A.  D.   100. 

Bishop  of  Pliilipolis, 

Who  is  saluted  by  St.  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
and  whose  work  entitled  The  Pastor,  or  Shepherd,  was,  in 
the  time  of  Eusebius,  publicly  read  in  the  churches,*  and 
in  the  judg-ment  of  Origen  was  held  to  be  divinely  inspired,^ 
deserves  all  the  respect  due  to  an  author  who  confesses 
himself  to  be  a  wilful  asserter  of  known  falsehood. 
Lardner,  who  makes  large  extracts  from  his  writings,  to 
prove  thereby  the  credibility  of  the  gospel  history  ;  has  the 
disingenuineness  to  conceal,  and  pass  over  entirely  unno- 
ticed, this  characteristicfeatureof  an  authority  that  serves 
him  well  enough,  at  the  time,  to  support  his  gospel  credi- 
bility, leaving  the  character  of  the  holy  Father  out  of  all 
weight  in  the  consideration  of  his  testimony. 

I  cannot  send  this  apostolic  father  and  his  divinely  in- 
spired book  to  their  eternal  rest,  in  the  judgment  of  my 
readers,  with  greater  fairness,  than  by  presenting  them 
with  a  chapter  as  a  specimen.  The  annexed  is  the  whole 
of  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  second  book,  from  Archbishop 
Wake's  translation  : — 

"  1.  Moreover,  the  angel  said  unto  me.  Love  the  truth, 
and  let  all  the  speech  be  true  which  proceeds  out  of  thy 
mouth,  that  the  spirit  which  the  Lord  hath  given  to  dwell 
in  thy  flesh,  may  be  found  true  towards  all  men,  and  the 
Lord  be  glorified,  who  hath  given  such  a  spirit  unto  thee  ; 

"  2.  Because  God  is  true  in  all  his  words,  and  in  him 
there  is  no  lie  ; 

"  3.  They,  therefore,  that  lie,  deny  the  Lord,  and  be- 
come robbers  of  the  Lord,  not  rendering  to  God  what  they 
received  from  him  : 

"  4.  For  they  received  the  spirit  free  from  lying  ;  if, 
therefore,  they  make  that  a  liar,  they  defile  what  was  com- 
mitted to  them  by  the  Lord,  and  become  deceivers. 

"  5.  When  I  heard  this,  I  wept  bitterly  ;  and  when  the 
angel  saw  me  weeping,  he  said  unto  me.  Why  weepest 
thou  ? 

"6.  And  I  said,  Because,  sir,  I  doubt  whether  I  can  be 
saved. 

"7.  He  asked  me.  Wherefore  } 

"  8.  I  replied,  Because,  sir,  I  never  spake  a  true  word 
in  my  life,  but  always  lived  in  dissimulation,  and  affirmed 

*  Lardner,  vol.  1 ,  p.  305.  t  Ibid.  p.  551. 


THE  APOSTOLIC    FATHERS.  295 

a  lie  for  truth  to  all  men,  and  no  man  contradicted  me,  but 
all  gave  credit  to  my  word  ; 

"  9.  How  then  can  I  live,  seeing  I  have  done  in  this 
manner  ? 

"10.  And  the  angel  said  unto  me,  Thou  thinkest  well, 
and  truly  ; 

"11.  For  thou  oughtest,  as  the  servant  of  God,  to  have 
walked  in  the  truth,  and  not  have  joined  an  evil  conscience 
with  the  spirit  of  truth,  nor  have  grieved  the  holy  and 
true  Spirit  of  God. 

"  12.  And  I  replied  unto  him,  Sir,  I  never  before  heark- 
ened so  diligently  unto  these  things. 

"  13.  Heanswered  me,  JVoiv  thou  hearest  them,  take 
care  from  henceforth,  that  even  those  things  which  thou 
hast  formerly  spoken  falsely  for  the  sake  of  thy  business, 
may  by  thy  present  truth  receive  credit  ; 

"  14.  For  even  these  things  may  be  credited,  if,  for  the 
time  to  come,  thou  shalt  speak  the  truth ;  and  by  so  doing 
thou  mayest  attain  unto  life. 

"15.  And  whosoever  shall  hearken  unto  this  command 
and  do  it,  and  shall  depart  from  all  lying,  he  shall  live 
unto  God." 


St.  Hermas  was  evidently  a  Gnostic,  or  one  of  the  know- 
ing ones.  "  His  principle,"  says  Beausobre,  "  was,  that 
faith  was  only  fit  for  the  rabblement,  but  that  a  wise  man 
should  conduct  himself  by  his  knowledge  only."*  He 
seems  to  have  escaped  martyrdom. 


ST.    POLYCARP,  A.    D.   108. 

Bishop  of  Smyrna. 
"  It  is  a  thing  confessed  and  lamented  by  the  gravest 
divines  of  the  Roman  Catholic  communion,  that  the  names 
and  worship  of  many  pretended  saints,  who  never  had  a  real 
existence,  had  been  fraudulently  imposed  upon  the 
church."!  I  commend  not  my  suspicions  that  this  Polycarp 
may  be  one  of  the  unreal  order,  but  leave  the  reader  to 
give  all  the  respect  he  can  afford  to  the  testimony  that 
would  subdue  our  reason  to  a  belief  that  a  venerable 
inoffensive  old  man,  who,  after  having  lived  in  undis- 

*  Hermes  . . .  Gnostique.     Son  principe  est  que  la  foi  ne  convient  qu  au  peuple  ; 
que  le  sage  se  conduit  par  la  science. — Beaus.  torn.  2,  p.  731, 
t  Dr.  Middletoa's  Preface  to  his  Letter  from  Rome,  p.  59. 


296  THE    APOSTOLIC    FATHERS. 

tiirbed  tranquillity  in  his  bishopric  under  a  Nero  and 
Domitian,  should  have  been  drag-ged,  in  the  86th  year  of 
his  age,  to  the  cruel  death  of  fire  under  the  government 
of  the  philosophic  Jlntoninus,  and  by  the  magistracy,  to  be 
sure,  of  that  old  rascal  again,  Herod,*  I  dare  say  the 
same  who  slew  the  children  in  Bethlehem  :  for  chronology 
has  nothing  to  do  with  matters  of  faith.  "  Then  came 
there  a  voice  from  heaven,"  so  runs  the  sacred  story, 
"  saying,  Be  of  good  chee^•,  Polycarp,  and  play  the  man."f 

"  The  proconsul  demanded  of  him,  whether  Ke  were  that 
Polycarp,  beckoning  that  he  should  deny  it,  and  adding, 
'  Consider  thine  age — swear  by  the  fortune  of  Csesar  : 
repent  thee  of  what  is  past;  say.  Remove  the  wicked.' 
But  Polycarp  exclaimed,  '  0  Lord,  remove  these  wicked  ;' 
and,  after  concluding  a  mystical  prayer  with  the  usual 
doxology  at  the  end  of  a  modern  sermon,  he  was  commit- 
ted to  the  flames  ;  but  the  flaming  fire  framing  itself  after 
the  form  of  a  vault,  or  sail  of  a  ship,  refused  to  burn  so 
good  a  man  ;  upon  which  a  tormentor  was  ordered  to  be 
fetched,  to  whom  they  gave  charge  to  lance  him  in  the 
side  with  a  spear,  which,  when  he  had  done,  such  a  stream 
of  blood  issued  out  of  his  body,  that  the  fire  was  therewith 
quench ed.J  So  that  the  whole  multitude  marvelled  such 
a  pre-eminence  to  be  granted  and  difference  to  be  shown 
between  the  infidel  and  the  faithful  and  elect  people  of  God, 
of  which  number  this  Polycarpus  was  one,  a  right  apostol- 
ic and  prophetical  doctor  of  our  time,  bishop  of  the  catho- 
lic church  of  Smyrna. §  But  the  Devil  procured  that  his 
body  should  not  be  found,  for  many  endeavoured  and 
fully  purposed  to  hold  communion  with  his  blessed  flesh. 
But  certain  men  suggested  to  Nicetas,  the  father  of  Herod, 
and  his  brother  Dalces,  to  move  the  proconsul  not  to  give 
up  his  body,  lest  the  Christians,  as  they  said,  should  leave 
the  crucified^  and  begin  to  worship  Polycarp."  It  is  add- 
ed, that  he  suffered  with  twelve  others  who  came  out  of 
Philadelphia. 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  the  well-known  Unita- 

*  Kat  vntjyrtt  avTto  o  tiqtivaQx^?  HquSjjc. — Eecl.  Hist.  lib.  4,  p.  97. 

t  IO)(vs  nakvxctQTct  xui  avSQi^ov. — Euseh.  lib.  4,  c.  14,  p.  96,  E. 
X  "  Who  would  have  thought   that  the  old  man  had  had   so  much  blood  in 
him  .'" — Macbeth. 

§  O  (5«  ai'Ti?i)Ao?  xat  ptxaxavog  xat  TiovtjQof  avnxufisvo^ — liiov  ro  fitytd'og  avrov 
TJ;s  ^iuiJTvQiaQ — i7tsTt;ditiasv  tug  utj  to  fiwiiariov  avrov  v<p'  Tjfiujy  Xtjip^ti*! — xainiQ 
no^Xuir  eTiiSvfiovvrutv  rovTo  noiO(ti,  xat  xotvtorijffat  avrov  toj  oyiw  oaQxiio  vntflaX- 
koy  yovf  TU'es  riy.nrt<v  rov  rov  TirSiJOV  nuri(ja  adtXcpor  di  ia/l.x);f—ws  rt  fit} 
dovvtti.     X.  T.  X.— Euseh.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  4,  c.  14,  p.  99,  lit.  A. 


THE    APOSTOLIC    FATHERS.  297 

rian  tact  of  reducing  to  probability^  practised  upon  our  re- 
cords of  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp. 

The  original  story  unquestionably  ran,  that  upon  the 
piercing-  of  the  martyr's  breast,  a  dove  was  seen  to  fly  out 
of  his  body. — See  the  text  of  Cotelerius,  in  his  Jlpostolic 
Fathers ;  and  the  remarks  of  Dr.  Middleton,  in  his  Free  In- 
quiry. The  important  fact  is  exscinded  from  its  place  in 
Eusebias,  for  a  sufficiently  surmiseable  purpose.  It  serv- 
ed its  turn,  while  it  would  serve  its  turn  ;  but  it  has  be- 
come necessary  that  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  relig- 
ion should  make  some  sort  of  peace  with  reason,  and  the 
most  entertaining  passages  of  sacred  history  are  consequent- 
ly to  be  sacrificed.  Some  divines  are  even  for  expunging 
the  improbable  parts  of  the  New  Testament  itself  Alas, 
what  would  they  reduce  it  to  ! 

In  the  teetli  of  such  self-evident  proof  of  a  fietious  char- 
acter, and  a  fictions  martyrdom.  Dr.  Lardner  cooly  tell  us, 
that  the  relation  of  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp,  written  by 
the  church  of  Smyrna,  of  which  he  was  bishop,  is  an  ex- 
cellent piece,  which  may  be  read  with  pleasure  by  the 
English  reader,  in  Archbishop  Wake's  Collection  of  the 
Lives  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers. 

The  name  of  Polycarp,  his  bishopric,  his  martyrdom, 
are  entirely  unknown  to  rational  or  credible  history. 


ST.    IGNATIUS,    A.    D.    107, 

Is  believed  to  have  been  bishop  of  Antioch  in  Syria,  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  first  and  beginning  of  the  second 
century,*  and  is  believed  to  have  succeeded  Euodius,  who 
had  been  the  first  bishop  of  that  see.  The  name  Euodius 
occurs  in  the  list  of  persons  saluted  by  St.  Paul,  and  this 
seems  to  be  the  reason  of  Eusebius  for  making  a  bishop 
of  him,  though  nothing  is  known  of  him  but  the  name. 
"Beside  the  bishopric,"  says  Lardner,  "the  martyrdom 
of  this  good  man,  Ignatius,  is  another  of  those  few  things 
concerning  him  which  are  not  contradicted."  Basnage, 
however,  puts  the  year  of  Ignatius's  death  among  the 
obscurities  of  chronology.  Indeed,  those  learned  men 
who  have  attempted  to  fix  the  time,  have  no  other  grounds 
than  the  testimony  of  Malala  a  barbarian  of  the  sixth 
century,  and  the  Acts  or  Martyrdom  of  Ignatius,  the 
genuineness  of  which  Lardner  himself  admits  may  be  well 
disputed.     He  concludes,  however,  that   "  as  the  epistles 

*  Lardner,  vol.  1,  p.  313. 


298  THE    APOSTOLIC    FATHERS. 

we  now  have  of  Ignatius  are  allowed  to  be  g-ennine  by  a 
great  number  of  learned  men  whose  opinion  I  think  to  be 
founded  upon  probable  arguments,  I  now  proceed  to  quote 
them  as  his."* 

The  name  of  Ignatius  is  only  twice  mentioned  by  Ori- 
gen,  and  that  in  so  cursory  a  manner  as  to  preclude  any 
inference  that  Origen  himself  had  any  certain  knowledge 
of  his  history.  The  whole  story  of  his  martyrdom  is  so 
utterly  incongruous  with  time  and  circumstance,  as  to 
lead  to  no  other  rational  conclusion  than  the  probability 
that  he  is  altogether  the  figment  of  that  pious  romance  in 
which  ecclesiastical  historians  have  ever  delighted — 
another  name  to  be  added  to  the  long  list  of  saints  and 
martyrs,  which  even  the  more  intelligent  of  Roman  Cath- 
olic writers  have  been  constrained  to  admit  never  existed 
at  all,  but  were  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision,  Jesus  Christ 
himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone.  The  epistles  ascrib- 
ed to  Ignatius  are  admitted  by  all  parties  to  have  been 
most  extensively  altered  from  the  first  or  earlier  drafts  of 
them  ;  but  such  as  they  are,  even  on  amomentary  reverie 
of  their  supposeable  genuineness,  they  afford  no  testimo- 
ny to  any  one  of  the  essential  facts  of  the  Christian  story. 
Written  whenever,  or  by  whomsoever  we  suppose  them 
to  be,  'tis  certain  that  the  writer  held  out  nothing  so  lit- 
tle as  the  notion  that  the  events  on  which  the  Gospel  is 
founded,  had  ever  really  happened.  Let  his  mode  of  rea- 
soning tell  its  own  story  !  This  it  is. 

"  Ignatius,  which  is  called  Theophorus,!  to  the  church 
which  is  at  Ephesus  in  Asia,  most  deservedly  happy, 
being  blessed  through  the  greatness  and  fullness  of  God 
the  Father,  and  predestinated  before  the  world  began, 
that  it  should  be  always  unto  an  enduring  and  unchange- 
able glory,  being  united  and  chosen  through  his  true 
passion,  according  to  the  will  of  the  Father,  and  Jesus 
Christ  our  God  ;  all  happiness  by  Jesus  Christ  and  his 
undefiled  grace. 

"  There  is  one  physician,  both  fleshly  and  spiritual, 
made  and  not  made — God  incarnate,  true  life  in  death, 
both  of  Mary  and  of  God — first  passible,  then  impassible, 
even  Jesus  Christ. 

"  My  soul  be  for  yours  ;  and  I  myself  the  expiatory 

*  Lardner's  words,  vol.  1.  p.  .316. 

t  Theophorus,  i.  e.  one  who  carries  God  within  him — a  name  of  the  same 
Stock  ae  Praise-God  Barebone, — another  edition  of  Polycarp'a  intercostal 
pigeon. 


THE  APOSTOLIC    FATHERS.  299 

offering  for  your  church  of  Ephesus,  so  famous  throughout 
the  world." 

1 9th  Chapter. — "Now  the  virginity  of  Mary,  and  he 
who  was  born  of  her,  was  kept  in  secret  from  the  prince 
of  tliis  world,  as  was  also  tiie  death  of  our  Lord  :  three  of 
the  mysteries  the  most  spoken,  of  throughout  the  world, 
yet  done  in  secret  by  God.  How  then  was  our  Saviour 
manifested  to  the  world  ?  A  star  shone  in  heaven  beyond 
all  the  other  stars,  and  its  light  was  inexpressible,  and  its 
novelty  struck  terror  into  men's  minds  ;  all  the  rest  of  the 
stars,  together  with  the  sun  and  moon,  were  the  chorus  to 
this  star  ;  but  this  star  sent  out  its  light  exceedingly  above 
them  all,  and  men  began  to  be  troubled  to  think  whence 
this  new  star  came,  so  unlike  to  all  the  others.  Hence 
all  the  power  of  magic  became  dissolved,  and  every  bond 
of  wickedness  was  destroyed  ;  men's  ignorance  was  taken 
away,  and  the  old  kingdom  abolished  ;  God  himself  ap- 
pearing in  the  form  of  a  man,  for  the  renewal  of  eternal 
life.  From  thence  began  what  God  had  prepared,  from 
thenceforth  things  were  disturbed,  forasmuch  as  he  de- 
signed to  abolish  death."* 

Thus  far  from  Archbishop  Wake's  English  translation. 
Among  the  passages  which  Lardner  extracts  are,  from  his 
Epistle  to  the  Philadelphians,  the  following  : — 

"  Behold,  I  have  heard  of  some  who  say,  Unless  I  find 
it  in  the  ancients,  I  will  not  believe  in  the  Gospel  ;  and 
I  said  unto  them,  It  is  written  :  they  answered  me.  It  is 
not  mentioned.  But  to  me,  instead  of  all  ancients,  is 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  the  uninterpolated  antiquities  are  his 
cross,  and  his  death  and  resurrection,  and  the  faith  which 
is  by  him.  "t 

Archbishop  Wake's  Collection,  in  English,  and  Mr. 
Hone's  Apocryphal  New  Testament,  supply  the  reader 
with  so  many  of  the  epistles  of  Ignatius  as  it  suited  the 
purpose  of  Dr.  Lardner  to  recognize.  We  have,  however, 
a  billet-doux  of  this  holy  father  written  to  the  Virgin  Mary, 
and  her  answer  to  it,  of  equal  authenticity  to  any  other 

*  H  nuQ^eria  fiaoia?  xai  o  roy.sTrj?  avTt^g,  ouoioig  xat  o  ^avcirot;  rov  xvQtov  rqia 
fivaniQia  xQavyrfg,  uxivu  tv  tjav/ia  -S^tov  ntqax-^i]  nwg  ovv  i(fainti>3&>;  Totg  aiuiffii? 
^arriQ  sv  ovQuiw,tiXa^il.'sv  vntQTtavrag  Tovg  aariQac,  xai  to  (ftog  avrov  uvty.'/.u- 
Irftov  >jv,  xai  l;tvtOftor  jra^tt/fv  7;  xatrortjg  avxovia  St  Xotna  naria  aaxQa  auit 
riXim  xai  (T£^.f;i>;  ;fooo?  tyfieTo  tw  aartQi. — x.  r.  X. 

t  Exovaa  rix'iov  XtyovToor  on  tav  fttj  ev  Totg  UQxaiotg  ivqm,  tv  tw  ivayycXiuj  ov 
marivta  xai  Xiyovrog  ftov  avroig,  oTi  yiyQctmai,  tncxQi&riaav  fioi  oTi  uv  nnoxitrui 
tfioi  Se  aqx^ioi  lartv  luaovg  Xqiarog  ra  adtxra  aq/cta  0  oravqog  avrov. — x.  t.  X. 
iliartvuj  bears  a  future  sense. 


300  THE  APOSTOLIC    FATHERS. 

writings  of  the  first  century,  and  even  in  some  respects  of 
superior  evidence. 

Tlie  learned  and  ingenuous  Peter  Stalloixus,  who  had 
for  some  time,  through  the  craft  and  subtlety  of  Satan, 
been  tempted  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  this  correspon- 
dence, subsequently  avows  his  repentance  of  that  danger- 
ous scepticism,  and  declares  that  the  arguments  of  that 
serious  writer,  Flavius  Dexter,  had  so  convinced  his  mind, 
that  he  dared  no  longer  hold  their  claims  as  questionable.* 
They  are  as  follows  : — 

The  Epistle  of  theJ}hssed   Ignatius,   to  the   holy   Virgin  Mary^ 
Mother  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  f 
"  To   the   Christ-bearing  Maria,   her  own   Ignatius 
sendeth  his  compliments. 
"  You  ought  to  comfort  and  console  me,  who  am  a  new 
convert  and  a  disciple  of  your  friend  John  ;  for  I  have 
learned  things  wonderful  to  be  told  concerning  your  Jesus, 
and  am  astonished  at  the  hearing  ;  but  I  desire  from  my 
very  soul  to  be  certified  immediately  by  yourself,  who 
wast  always  familiar  and  conjoined  Avith  him,  and  privy 
to  his  secrets,  concerning  the  things  I  have  he.ard.     I  have 
written  to  you  other  epistles  also,  and  have  asked  concer- 
ning the  same  things. — Farewell  ;  and  let  the  new  con- 
verts who  are  with  me  be  comforted  by  thee,  and  from 
thee,  and  in  thee.     Amen." 

The  blessed  Virgin^s  Answer. 

"  To  Ignatius,  the  beloved  fellow  disciple,  the  humble 

handmaid  of  Christ  Jesus  sendeth  her  compliments.  | 

"  The  things  which  you  have  heard  and  learned  from 

John  concerning  Jesus  are  true  ;  believe  them,  cleave   to 

*  This  divine  was  one  of  the  thousands  who  reason  that  there  can  be  no  danger 
in  believing  too  much,  belief  being  at  any  rate  the  safe  side  ;  for  if  the  moon  after 
all  should  prove  to  be  made  of  a  green  cheese,  what  will  become  of  philosophers  ! 

t  Christifera:  Mariae,  suus  Ignatius  !  Me  neophytum  Johannisque  tui  discipulum, 
confortare  et  consolari  debueras.  De  Jesu  enim  tuo  percepi  mira  dictu,  et  stupe- 
factus  sum  ex  auditu.  A  te  autem  qus3  semper  ei  fuisti  familiaris  et  conjuncta,  et 
secretorum  ejus  conscia,  desidero  ex  animo  fieri  certior  de  auditis.  Scripai  tibi 
etiam  alias,  et  rogavi  de  eisdem.  Valeas  :  et  neophyti  qui  mecum  sunt  ex  te  et 
per  te,  et  in  te  confortentur.     Amen. 

t  Ignatio  delecto  condiscipulo  humilis  ancilla  Christi  Jesu.  De  .Tesu  quae  a  Jo- 
hannee  audistiet  didicisti,  vera  sunt.  Ula  credas  :  illis  inhaereiis  et  Christianitatis 
susceptfe  votum  firmiter  teneas,  el  mores  et  vitam  voto  conformes.  Veniam  autem 
cum  .lohanne,  te  et  qui  tecum  sunt  visere.  Sta  in  fide,  et  viriliter  age,  nee  te  com- 
moveat  persecutionis  austeritns  sed  valeat  et  oxsultet  spiritus  tuns  ia  Deo  Salutari 
tuo.     Amen. — Fabricii,  Cod.  Apoc.  torn.  2,  p.  841. 


THE    APOSTOLIC    FATHERS.  301 

them — hold  fast  the  vow  you  have  made  to  the  Christian- 
ity which  you  have  embraced,  and  conform  your  life  and 
manners  to  that  vow  ;  and  I  and  John  will  come  together 
to  visit  you.  Stand  firm  in  the  faith  ;  act  manfully,  nor 
let  the  sharp  severity  of  persecution  move  you.  But  may 
your  soul  fare  well,  and  rejoice  in  God  your  Saviour. 
Amen." 

To  be  sure  these  precious  epistles  were  not  forthcoming 
before  the  faith  of  the  church  was  ripe  to  receive  them  ; 
being  first  published  at  Paris  in  the  year  1495,  but  they 
are  none  the  less  genuine  on  that  account  ;  nor  is  there  a 
single  argument  that  can  be  urged  against  them  but  what, 
in  parity  of  application,  would  be  fatal  to  the  credibility  of 
either  of  our  four  gospels.  Nothing  hinders  but  that  these 
jewels  might  have  lain  hid  under  the  miraculous  keeping 
of  divine  providence,  till  the  proper  time  was  arrived  for 
their  being  brought  to  light  and  set  to  shine  in  the  bright 
diadem  of  Christian  evidences.  And  as  for  all  arguments 
drawn  from  chronology,  geography,  and  other  profane 
sciences,  Christians  have  ever  fo'und  their  best  policy  to 
consist  in  regarding  those  who  adducd  them  as  objects  of 
contempt,  in  committing  their  writings  unread  to  the 
flames,  and  themselves  unheard  to  gaols  and  dungeons. 
It  may,  however,  be  a  profitable  exercise  for  the  ingenuity 
of  believers  to  try  if  they  can  imagine  or  invent  a  single 
sentiment  of  hostility,  expression  of  scorn,  or  action  of  cru- 
elty, that  could  be  justly  merited  by  the  rejecters  of  the 
writings  contained  in  the  New  Testament,  that  would  not, 
but  a  few  years  back,  have  seemed  with  equal  justice  to  be 
merited  by  the  impugners  of  the  epistles  of  Ignatius. 


RESULT. 

Here  ends  the  utmost  extent  of  testimony  to  the  facts  of 
the  Christian  history  to  be  derived  from  the  apostolic  Fath- 
ers,— that  is,  from  all  who  can  be  pretended  to  have 
written  or  lived  at  any  time  within  a  hundred  years  of  the 
birth  of  Christ.  It  is  not  possible  to  produce  so  much  as 
one  single  sentence  or  manner  of  expression  from  any  one, 
friend  or  enemy,  historian  or  divine,  maintainer  or  im- 
pugner  of  the  Christian  doctrines,  within  the  first  centu- 
ry ;  the  like  of  which  we  can  conceive  to  have  been  used 
by  any  person  who  had  been  witness  of  the  facts  on  which 
the  doctrines  are  founded,  or  contemporary  of  those  who 
had  been  witnesses,  or  who  had  believed  that  those  facts 
27 


302  THE    APOSTOLIC  FATHERS. 

had  really  happened,  or  had  so  much  as  heard  that  there 
were  any  persons  on  earth  that  had  seriously  asserted  that 
they  had  happened.  The  language  of  these  Fathers,  who 
are  accounted  orthodox,  to  say  nothing  of  what  we  may 
hereafter  gather  from  heretical  information,  is  every  where 
the  language  of  a  religious  fatuity,  childish  beyond  all 
names  of  childishness — foolish  as  folly  itself.  We  should 
just  as  well  find  evidence  and  authentication  to  Magna 
Charta  in  the  scribblings  of  an  idiot  on  a  wall,  or  make 
out  the  particulars  of  the  Punic  wars  from  the  records  of  a 
baby-house,  as  discover  a  trace  of  testimony  to  fact  in  any 
documents  of  the  Fathers  of  the  first  century.  It  remains 
only  for  those  who,  after  an  elapse  of  eighteen  centuries, 
have  moulded  or  new-fangled  to  themselves  a  system 
which  they  would  now  have  us  consider  as  "  worthy  of 
all  acceptation,"  to  show  how  that  which  had  so  little  evi- 
dence at  first,  could  come  to  have  more  afterwards  ;  or 
how  what  was  never  known  nor  spoken  of  but  as  a  matter 
of  imagination,  conceit,  and  faith,  in  the  first  century, 
should  come  to  have  a  right  to  be  put  on  the  score  of  his- 
torical evidence  at  any  later  period. 

The  orthodox  Fathers  (as  far  as  doctrine  is  concerned 
with  orthodoxy)  seem  only  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
heretics,  in  that  they  occasionally  use  a  strength  of  lan- 
guage in  their  descriptions  of  allegorical  figments,  which 
might  seem  to  approximate  to  the  style  of  history,  and 
might  make  what  they  only  intended  as  emblems,  pass  for 
actual  circumstances.  Yet  against  such  an  acceptation  of 
such  occasional  over-drivings  of  the  allegory,  we  have 
to  consider  that  we  are  in  possession,  not  only  of  the  ar- 
gument arising  from  the  natural  improbability  of  such  al- 
legorical exaggerations  when  mistaken  for  facts,  and  the 
total  absence  of  all  corroborative  and  coincident  testimony 
which  could  by  no  possibility  be  conceived  to  have  been 
wanting  if  such  facts  had  ever  happened  ;  but  we  have  the 
concurrent,  and  it  may  be  called  unanimous  consent  of  the 
whole  body  of  Christian  dissenters  (that  is,  in  the  church 
term,  the  heretics),  who  from  the  very  first,  and  all  along, 
never  ceased  to  maintain  and  teach,  that  no  such  a  person 
as  Jesus  Christ  ever  existed,  and  that  all  the  evangelical 
statements  of  his  miracles,  actions,  suflferings,  birth,  death, 
and  resuriection,  were  to  be  understood  in  a  high  and 
mystical  sense,  and  not,  according  to  the  letter  as  facts 
that  had  ever  happened  ;  and  this,  too,  confirmed  by  ad- 
missions of  those  who  are  called  orthodox  themselves,  in 


THE    APOSTOLIC    FATHERS. 


303 


many  positive  passages  ;  unabated  by  so  much  as  a  single 
sentence  that  can  be  produced  from  any  one  writer  within 
the  first  hiuidred  years,  which  is  such  as  he  would  have 
written,  or  wo\ild  have  suited  his  character  to  write,  had 
he  believed  that  the  Gospel  had  been  founded  upon  his- 
torical fact.  And  absolutely  the  only  ditference  between 
Paganism  and  Christianity — Christians  themselves  being 
Judges — was  the  difference  between  the  allegorical  fictions 
in  which  the  one  or  the  other  couched  the  same  physical 
theorems  ;  as  is  demonstrated,  without  need  of  further 
comment,  by  the  juxta-position  of  their  respective  texts  : 


Julius  Firmicius, 
in  description  of  the 

Pagan  Mysteries, 
quotes  Pagan  Piicsts. 
*■  But  in  those  funerals  and 
lamentations  which  are  annu- 
ally celebrated  in  honour  of 
Osiris,  their  defenders  wish  to 
pretend  a  physical  reason  ;  they 
call  the  seeds  of  fruit,  Osiris,  the 
earth,  Isis,  the  natural  heat, 
Typhon  ;  and  because  the  fruits 
are  ripened  by  the  natural  heat, 
are  collected  for  the  life  of  man, 
and  are  separated  from  their 
matrimony  to  the  earth,  and  are 
sown  again  when  winter  ap- 
proaches, this  they  would  have 
to  be  the  death  of  Osiris  ;  but 
when  the  fruits,  by  the  genial 
fostering  of  the  earth,  begin 
again  to  be  generated  by  a  new 
procreation,  this  is  the  finding 
of  Osiris. 

*  Sed  in  his  funeribus  et  luctibiis, 
defensoreg  eorum  volunt  addere  phy- 
siciam  ratlonem.  Fi  uguin  semina  Osi- 
rim  dicentes  esse,  Isiin  terram,  Typho- 
nem  calorem.  Et  quia  raaturatse  fruges 
calore,  ad  vitam  hominis  coUiguntur,  et 
a  terrae  consortio  separantur,  et  rursus 
appropinquantehyemeseminantur  :  banc 
volunt  esse  mortem  Osiridis,  cum  fruges 
redduntur  :  inventionem  vero,  cum  fru- 
ges genitaii  terrae  fomento  concepts, 
nova  rursus,  cffiperint  procreatione  gen- 
erari. — De  Errors  Profanarum  Re- 
ligionum,  p.  6. 


Beausobre, 

in    description   of  the 

Christian  Mysteries, 

quotes  Christian  Fathers. 

j  In  one  word,  the  suffering 
Jes'us  is  nothing  else  than  what 
the  Manicha3ans  called  the  mem- 
bers of  God  ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
celestial  substance,  or  the  souls 
which  have  descended  from 
heaven. 

The  earth  is  the  Virgin  ;  the 
heavenly  substance  which  is  in 
the  earth,  is  the  substance  of  the 
Virgin,  of  which  Jesus  Christ 
was  formed  ;  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  the  natural  heat,  by  whose 
virtue  the  earth  conceived  him  ; 
and  he  becomes  an  infant  in 
being  made  to  pass  through  the 
plants,  and  from  thence  again 
into  heaven. 


t  En  un  mot,  le  Jesu  Passible,  n'est 
autre  chose  que  les  Manicheens  appel- 
loient  les  membres  de  Dieu,  c'est  a  dire 
la  substance  celeste,  ou  les  ames  qui 
sont  descendues  du  ciel. — Beausobre 
Histoire  des  Dogmes  de  Manichee, 
liv.  S,  c.  4,  torn.  2,  p.  556. 

La  terre  est  la  Vierge,  la  substance 
celeste,  qui  est  dans  la  terre,  est  la  sub- 
stance Virgmale  qui  compose  Jesus  ; 
S.  Esprit  est  I'agent  par  la  virtue  du 
quel  la  terre  le  congoit,  est  I'enfante  en 
le  faisant  passer  dans  les  plantes,  et  dela 
dans  le  ciel. 


304         FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY. 

With  more  than  the  significancy  that  will  strike  one  at 
the  first  sight,  has  the  learned  Montfaucon  observed,  that 
"  when  once  a  man  begins  to  use  his  own  judgment  in 
matters  of  religion,  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  should  fre- 
quently be  in  error,  since  all  things  are  uncertain,  when 
once  we  depart  from  what  the  church  has  decreed  :"* — 
that  is,  in  other  words,  there  is  no  other  real  argument  for 
the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  than  "  He  that  believeth 
not  shall  be  damned P^ — Mark  xvi.  16. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

THE    FATHERS    OF    THE     SECOND    CENTURY. 


PAPIAS,    A.    D.    116. 

Bishop  of  Hierapolis. 

The  first  of  all  the  Fathers  of  the  second  century,  and. 
next  immediately  following  on  those  of  the  first  to  whom 
exclusively  is  applied  the  distinction  apostolical,  is  Papias, 
placed  by  Cave  at  the  year  110  ;  according  to  others,  he 
flourished  about  the  year  115  or  116.  He  is  said  by  some 
to  have  been  a  martyr.  Irenseus  speaks  of  him  as  a  hearer 
of  St.  John,  and  a  companion  of  Polycarp.  fPapias,  how- 
ever, in  his  preface  to  his  five  books,  entitled  An  Explica- 
tion of  the  Oracles  of  the  Lord,  does  not  himself  assert  that 
he  heard  or  saw  any  of  the  holy  apostles,  but  only  that  he 
had  received  the  things  concerning  the  faith  from  those 
who  were  well  acquainted  with  them.  "  Now  we  are  to 
observe,"  says  Eusebius,  "  how  Papias,  who  lived  at  the 
same  time,  mentions  a  wonderful  relation  he  had  received 
from  Philip's  daughters.  For  he  relates,  that  in  his  time 
a  dead  man  was  raised  to  life.  He  also  relates  another 
miracle  of  Justus,  surnamed  Barsabas,  that  he  drank  dead- 
ly poison,  and,  by  the  grace  of  the  Lord,  suffered  no 
harm."     This  deadly  poison  was  certainly  not  arsenic. 

Dr.  Lardner  concludes  his  very  brief  account  of  this 
Father,  with  a  remark  which,  from  any  pen  but  his,  would 

■^  Cum  quis  eo  devenit  ut  fidei  dogmata  ex  sui  judicii  arbitrio  definiat,  nihil  mi- 
ruiii  est  si  frequenter  aberret  :  omnia  quippe  sunt  incerta,  cum  seinel  ab  eccle- 
si;i',  Kiututis  discessum  est. — Montfaucon  in prolegom.  ad  Euseb.  Comment  in 
Psalmos. 

t  1  claim  to  be  excused  from  giving  the  Greek  text  m  all  cases  in  which  the 
translation  is  not  my  own.     This  is  Dr.  Lardner's. 


FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY.         305 

bear  the  character  of  drollery.  Immediately  after  telling 
us  that  "  Papias  was  a  man  of  small  capacity,"  he  adds, 
"  But  I  esteem  the  testimony  he  has  given  to  the  Gospels 
of  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark,  and  to  the  first  epistle  of 
St.  Peter  and  St.  John,  very  valuable  ;  but  if  Papias  had 
been  a  wiser  man,  he  had  left  us  a  confirmation  of  many 
more  books  of  the  New  Testament."  * 

It  was  convenient,  however,  for  Dr.  Lardner,  and  indeed 
essential  to  the  policy  of  his  whole  work,  entirely  to  sup- 
press the  important  evidence  by  which  his  readers  might 
be  furnished  with  the  means  of  estimating  the  value  of  this 
testimony  for  themselves.  It  is  perhaps  a  very  different 
impression  of  the  character  of  this  primitive  bishop,  and  of 
the  value  of  his  testimony,  which  the  reader  would  be  led 
to  form,  upon  consideration  of  the  evidence  arising  from 
his  writings  themselves  as  preserved  to  us  on  the  author- 
ity of  his  admirer  and  disciple  Irenseus,  in  which  he  gravely 
assures  us,  that  he  had  immediately  learned  from  the  evan- 
gelist St.  John  himself,  that  "the  Lord  taught  and  said, 
that  the  days  shall  come  in  which  vines  shall  spring  up, 
each  having  ten  thousand  branches,  and  in  each  branch 
shall  be  ten  thousand  arms,  and  on  each  arm  of  a  branch 
ten  thousand  tendrils,  and  on  each  tendril  ten  thousand 
bunches,  and  on  each  bunch  ten  thousand  grapes,  and  each 
grape,  on  being  pressed,  shall  yield  five  and  twenty  gallons 
of  wine  ;  and  when  any  one  of  the  saints  shall  take  hold  of 
one  of  these  bunches,  another  shall  cry  out,  '  I  am  a  better 
bunch,  take  me,  andijless  the  Lord  hy  me.'  "f  The  same 
infinitely  silly  metaphors  of  multiplication  by  ten  thousand, 
are  continued  with  respect  to  grains  of  wheat,  apples, 
fruits,  flowers,  and  animals  beyond  all  endurance,  precisely 
after  the  fashion  of  that  famous  sorites  of  the  nursery  upon 
the  House  that  Jack  built^  the  malt,  the  rat,  the  cat,  the  dog, 
the  cow,  &c.  :  all  which  Jesus  concluded  by  saying,  "And 
these  things  are  believable  by  all  believers ;  but  Judas 
the  traitor  not  believing,  asked  him,  But  how  shall  things 
that  shall  propagate  thus  be  brought  to  an  end  by  the 
Lord  ?    And  the  Lord  answered  him  and  said,  Those  who 

*  Lardner,  under  the  head  Papias. 

t  Docebat  Dominus  et  dicebat  venient  dies  in  quibus  nascentur  vinefe,  singulae 
dena  milha  palmituni  habentes,  et  in  uno  palmite  denia  miilia  brachiorum,  et  in 
uno  brachio  palmitis  dena  milha  flagellorum,  et  in  uno  quoque  flagello,  dena  miilia 
botruum,  et  in  unoquoque  botro,  dena  miilia  acinoruni,  et  unumquodque  acinum 
expressum  dabit  viginti  quinque  metretaa  vini.  Et  cum  eorum  apprehenderit  ali- 
quis  sanctorum  botrum,  alius  clamabit.  Botrus  ego  melior  sum,  me  sume,  per  me 
Dominum  beaedic. — Hac  Irencei  textus  translatio  Alberti  Fabricii  est 

21* 


306         FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY. 

shall  live  in  those  times  shall  see."*  But  even  this  Chris- 
tian conceit  wants  the  merit  of  originality.  It  is  a  poor 
plagiarism  from  the  form  of  adulation  in  which  the 
sovereigns  of  India  were  wont  to  be  addressed,  which 
was  as  follows : 

"■  May  the  king  live  for  a  thousand  years,  and  the  queen 
for  a  thousand  years  lie  in  his  bed ;  and  may  each  of  those 
years  consist  of  a  thousand  months,  and  each  of  those 
months  of  a  thousand  days,  and  each  of  those  days  of  a 
thousand  hours,  and  each  of  those  hours  be  a  thousand 
years."! 

Papias,  however,  notwithstanding  his  intimacy  with  the 
Evangelist  St.  John,  and  the  value  of  his  testimony  to  the 
Gospels  of  Matthew  and  Mark,  fell  into  the  slight  error  of 
believing  that  no  such  an  event  as  the  crucifixion  ever  hap- 
pened, but  that  Jesus  Christ  lived  to  be  a  very  old  man, 
and  died  in  peace  in  the  bosom  of  his  own  family.  Papias, 
with  all  his  absurdities,  had  some  respect  for  poetical  jus- 
tice, would  have  wound  us  up  the  scene  decently,  and  give 
us  gospel  quite  as  true,  though  not  so  bloody. 


QUADRATUS,    A.  D.    119, 

Bishop  of  Athens. 

The  testimony  on  which  the  advocates  of  Christianity 
lay  the  greatest  stress,  is  that  of  Quadratus.  For  earli- 
ness  of  time  and  apparent  distinctiveness  of  attestation, 
they  have  no  other,  equal,  or  second  to  it. 

He  is  the  only  writer,  up  to  the  period  of  the  time  of  his 
existence,  who  has  spoken  of  the  miracles  of  our  Saviour, 
in  a  sort  of  language  which  might  make  it  seem  that  he 
believed  them  himself,  and  took  them  to  be  historical 
events.  He  was  endued,  says  the  Chronography|  with  the 
gift  of  prophecy,  and  wrote  an  Apology  to  the  emperor 
Adrian.  He  is  not,  however,  placed  by  Lardner  in  his 
proper  place  as  an  Apostolic  Father,  or  as  next  to  an  Apos- 
tolic Father,  for  reasons,  which  it  is  impossible  for  the 
earnest  inquirer  after  truth  not  to  suspect.  He  is  of  the 
same  age  with  Ignatius,  and  has  left  us,  says  Paley,  the 
following  noble  testimony. § 

*  Et  adjecit  (sct7.  Jesus)  dicens,  Hcnc  autem  credibilia  sunt  credentibus.  Et  Jada, 
inquit  proditore,  non  credente,  et  interrogante  :  Ciuomodo  ergo  tales  genitura  a 
Domino  perficientur  ?  Dixisse  Doiiiinurn  :  Videbunt  qui  venient  in  ilia. 

t  Vir.  clar.  Thomas  Hyde  de  Schachiludio  et  Werdiludio. — Citante  Fabricioad 
locum. 

X  Which  I  have  frequently  quoted.  It  is  that  by  Melmoth  Hanmer,  tO  bia  edi- 
tion of  Eusebius,  Evagrius,  and  Socrates,  a.  d.  1649. 

6  Paley'*  ^•vi(ion/'««  of '*'"'••"*"*  '    '    f   *'^'* 


FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY.         307 

The  testimony  of  Quadratus. 
"  The  works  of  our  Saviour  were  always  conspicuous, 
for  they  were  real ;  both  those  that  were  healed,  and  those 
who  were  raised  from  the  dead,  who  were  seen,  not  only 
when  they  were  healed  or  raised,  but  for  a  long-  time  after- 
wards ;  not  only  whilst  he  dwelled  upon  this  earth,  but 
also  after  his  departure  ;  and  for  a  good  while  after  it, 
insomuch  that  some  of  them  have  reached  our  times."  * 

Paley"  adds  not  another  word  on  this  important  testi- 
mony. It  is  only  by  referring-  to  the  authority  which  he 
affects  to  quote  (which  is  evidently  so  much  more  pains 
than  he  ever  took  himself)  that  we  learn  that  this  famous 
Qxutdratus  was,  even  to  Eusebius  himself,  a  mere  hearsay 
evidence, — "  Among  those  who  were  then  famous,"  he 
tells  us,  "was  Q,uadratus^  whom  they  say^f  together  with 
the  daughters  of  Philip,  was  endued  with  the  gift  of  pro- 
phesying ;  and  many  others  also  at  the  same  time  flourish- 
ed, who  obtaining  the  first  step  of  apostolical  succession, 
and  preaching  and  sowing  the  celestial  seed  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  throughout  the  world,  filled  the  barns  of 
God  with  increase."! — "His  book,"  says  Eusebius,  "is 
as  yet  extant  among  the  Christian  brethren,  and  a  copy 
thereof  remaineth  with  us,  wherein  appear  perspicuous 
notes  of  the  understanding  and  true  apostolic  doctrine  of 
this  man.  That  he  was  one  of  the  ancients, §  may  be 
gathered  from  his  own  words."  Then  follows  the  famous 
passage  which  we  have  given. 

Quadratus,  according  to  such  an  account  of  the  matter 
as  we  may  gather  from  the  Ecclesiastical  History  (or 
rather  ecclesiastical  romance,  for  such  it  is)  of  Eusebius, 
was  fourth  bishop  of  Athens,  reckoning  St.  Paul  the  first, 
Dionyslus  the  Areopagite  the  second,  and  Publius,  his 
immediate  predecessor,  who  as  well  as  himself  is  said  to 
have  suffered  martyrdom,  the  third. 

From  a  letter  of  Dionysius  bishop  of  Corinth  to  the 
Athenians,  it  is  indicated  that  the  Athenians  had  not  only 
embraced  the  faith  previous  to  the  martyrdom  of  the  pre- 
decessor of  Quadratus,  but  that   "  they  were  now  in  a 

*The  whole  passage  from  beginning  to  end  is — KoSarog,  x.t.  k.  larogti  ravra 
liiat?  (fwvaig — "  t«  ds  awrrj^og  t;^(U)v  Ta  i^ya  an  naQtjv,  aXri-9-t]  yaQ  ijv.  Oi  -S-iQa- 
Ttiv&ttreg,  01  u%aaratrfc  ix  rixQoor,  oi  otix  w(f9i]aay  uovov  ■9i(ja7itvofierot  zot 
ariaTa/itcyoi,  a^.Xa  xui  an  naQovrig.  Ovdi  tnidtiusirog  fioior  je  awriiQog,  aXXa 
xai  anakkaytyTog,  yjaay  j/ri  ;(Qoyov  txayov  tuOTi  xai  tig  rovg  rjfitriQovg  j^Qoyovf 
Ttytg  avTcar  acfixoyro." — ToiovTog  fitv  ovTog,  x.  r.  k. 

t  jioyog  t/£i — "  as  the  story  goes,"  •'  the  tale  has  it." — Euseb.  Eccles.  Hist, 
lib.  iii.  c.  31.  E.  liaea  3,  Ed.  1612.  t  Ibid,  ift).  iii.  c.  3.  linea  11. 

§  Ka&'  tavTov  aQxaioTtira. 


SfiiS'  FATHERS    OF    THE    SECOND    CENTURY. 

manner  fallen  from  it,  and  were  by  the  zealous  labours  of 
Quadratus  reclaimed."* 

But  what  if  it  should  turn  out  that  this  Quadratus  was 
no  Christian  at  all  !  That  he  was  a  Pagan  priest,  who 
officiated  in  the  temple  of  God  the  Saviour  JEsculapius^  then 
established  at  Athens,  and  that  this  pretended  testimony 
to  the  Jew-Jesus,  is  nothing-  more  than  a  broken  para- 
graph out  of  some  account  that  a  heathen  bishop  had  given 
of  the*  miracles  that  were  wrought  by  the  son  of  Coronis. 
Let  the  reader  return  to  our  article  JEsculapius^  and  pro- 
pose to  his  own  conviction,  and  solve  as  he  may  the  im- 
portant queries  thence  emergent  : 

1st.  If  such  an  apology  as  this  purports  to  be,  had  been 
written  to  the  emperor  Adrian,  and  Eusebius  had  pos- 
sessed or  seen  a  copy  of  it,  why  he  should  not  have  given 
us  the  whole  of  it,  or  at  least  enough  to  have  given  it 
distinctiveness  of  application  and  sense,  so  as  to  put 
beyond  all  doubt  those  three  grand  primaries  of  every 
written  document — who  it  was  that  wrote — to  whom  it 
was  that  it  was  written, — and  what  was  the  subject  of  the 
writing .'' 

Of  these  inquiries,  the  broken  sentence  which  Eusebius 
has  given  us,  affords  no  solution.  It  might  have  been 
written  by  any  body  else  as  well  as  Quadratus — to  any 
body  else  as  well  as  to  Adrian ;  and  of  and  concerning 
jEsculapius,  as  well,  yea  better  and  more  probably,  than 
concerning  any  other  figment  whatever. 

No  mind  that  hath  the  faculty  of  critical  comparison, 
can  shut  from  their  influence  on  its  conclusion  these 
eighteen  predications  of  the  case  : 

1.  That  Eusebius  was  a  Christian-evidence  manufac- 
turer, and  was  labouring  and  digging  in  any  way,  or  on 
any  ground,  to  find  or  to  make  a  testimony  to  primitive 
Christianity. 

2.  That  he  lived  and  wrote  in  the  age  of  pious  fravds, 
when  it  was  considered  as  the  most  meritorious  exploit  to 
turn  the  arms  and  defences  of  Paganism  against  itself, 
to  pervert  documents  from  their  known  sense,  and  to  sup- 
port the  cause  of  Christianity,  not  only  by  forging  wri- 
tings, but  by  supposing  persons  who  never  existed. 

3.  That  Eusebius  himself  indirectly  confesses  that  he 
has  acted  on  this  principle,  "  that  he  has  related  whatever 
might  redound  to  the  glory,  and  that  he  has  suppressed 

*Eusb.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  iv.  c.  22. 


FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURV.         309 

all  that  could  tend  to  the  disgrace  of  relig-ion."*  And 
that  "if  we  subtract  falsifications,  interpolations  and 
evident  improbabilities,  his  account  of  the  Christians 
during  the  first  century,  amounts  to  little  more  than  we 
read  in  that  undateable  compilation,  the  New  Testa- 
ment, "f 

4.  That  we  have  no  indication  whatever,  either  in  the 
New  Testament,  or  in  any  credible  history,  that  Chris- 
tianity had  been  so  successfully  preached  at  Athens,  as 
to  gain  an  establishment  ;  or  that  that  city  had  become 
the  see  of  a  Christian  bishop,  at  any  time  within  the  three 
first  centuries. 

5.  That  where  Paul  Ijimself,  with  all  his  gift  of  tongues 
and  power  of  working  miracles,  was  only  regarded  as  a 
babbler,  and  derided  as  a  poor  insane  vagabond,  it  outra- 
ges the  faculty  of  conceit  itself,  to  conceive,  that  he  could 
have  appointed  and  left  the  regular  succession  of  an  eccle- 
siastical hierarchy. 

6.  That  we  have  the  most  unquestionable  and  unques- 
tioned evidence,  that  iEsculapius  was  worshipped  all  along 
in  Athens,  under  the  express  title  and  designation  of  Our 
Saviour. 

7.  That  the  miracles  subsequently  ascribed  to  Jesus 
Christ,  had  been  previously  ascribed  to,  and  believed  to 
have  been  wrought  by  ^sculapim. 

8.  That  these  miracles,  as  ascribed  to  iEsculapius,  an- 
swer in  every  particular  to  those  referred  to  in  this  passage 
of  Quadratus. 

9.  That,  as  ascribed  to  ^sculapius,  these  miracles  of 
healing,  and  raising  men  from  the  dead  (I  pray  observe, 
not  raising  the  dead,  but  raising  them  from  sicknesses  of 
which  they  otherwise  would  have  died,  and  so  preventing 
their  being  numbered  with  the  dead)  were  characteristic  of 
this  deity,  and  come  within  measure  of  probability — not 
of  their  having  happened, — but  of  their  having  been  be- 
lieved to  have  happened. 

10.  That  that  character  of  openness,  publicity  and  no- 
toriety, which  Quadratus  here  challenges  as  peculiarly 
characteristic  of  the  works  of  Our  Saviour  JEsculapius^  was 
as  peculiarly  wanting  and  deficient,  nay,  and  even  renoun- 

*  My  Greek  text  of  Eusebius,  which  is  216  years  old,  is  deficient  here,  and 
obliges  me  to  rely  on  the  quotation  as  given  by  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  vol.  ii. 
c.  16.  p.  490.  Hear  also  that  man  after  God's,  own  heart,  St.  Chrysostom  : 
"  Great  is  the  force  of  deceit  !  provided  it  be  not  excited  by  a  treacherous  inten- 
tion."— Com.  on  1  Corinth,  ix.  19. 

t  My  learned  friend's  unpublished  Ed.   of  Plutarch,  in  Appendice  Primo,  11. 


310        FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY. 

ced  and  given  up,  as  the  very  reverse  of  the  character  of 
the  miracles  ascribed  to  Our  Saviour  Jesws  Christ. 

11.  That  tablets  were  hung  up  in  the  temple  of  ^Escu- 
lapius,  and  all  its  walls  and  pillars  covered  over  and  em- 
blazoned with  trophies  of  his  victories  over  disease  and 
death. 

12.  That  persons  who  had  been  healed  and  raised  from 
the  dead  (that  is,  recovered  from  diseases  of  which  they 
had  like  to  have  died,)  were  every  day  in  attendance  in 
his  temple,  certifying  the  reality  of  the  miracles  which 
they  sincerely  believed  had  been  wrought  upon  them,  and 
pouring  forth  in  fervours  of  ecstatic  devotion  their  grateful 
acknowledgments  to  the  god  who  had  heard  their  prayers, 
and  magnified  his  power  in  their  miraculous  recoveries  : — 
but 

13.  That  the  works  of  Jesus  Christ,  were  expressly  said 
to  have  been  done  in  secret,  and  concealed  as  much  as 
possible  from  human  observance.  His  own  resurrection 
is  admitted  by  writers  on  the  Christian  evidence,  to  have 
been  only  a  private  miracle  *  A  character  of  legerdemain 
and  collusion  attaches  to  his  most  wonderful  performances, 
even  on  the  showing  of  the  New  Testament  itself.  When 
he  was  transfigured  \  "he  takes  with  him  only  his  three 
favourites. — When  he  turns  water  into  wine,  he  chooses 
the  time  when  the  witnesses  were  so  drunk  as  not  to  know 
the  difference. — When  he  raises  Jairus's  daughter,  he  puts 
away  all  her  friends  from  witnessing  the  reanimating  pro- 
cess.— When  he  cures  the  blind  man,  he  takes  him  aside 
from  p\iblic  observance. — When  he  cleanses  the  leper,  he 
^'■strailly  charged  him,  See  thou  say  nothing  to  any  man,  but  show 
thyself  to  thepriestfl  and  expressly  avows  his  aim  and  in- 
tention to  have  been  to  bilk  and  deceive  the  people. § 

14.  These  were  the  works,  and  the  characteristics  of 
the  works  of  the  Christian  Saviour,  in  diametrical  opposi- 
tion to  which,  the  bishop  of  ^sculapius  would  with  singu- 
lar propriety,  say,  "  But  the  works  of  our  Saviour  were 
always  conspicuous,  for  they  were  real,"&c.  as  it  follows: 
and  as  it  might  have  followed,  or  gone  before — The  works 
of  their  Saviour  were  secret  and  clandestine,  because  they 
were  not  real,  nor  have  Christians  so  much  as  one  public 
trophy  to  show,  or  one  individual  in  the  whole  world  whom 
they  can  bring  forward  to  attest  any  sort  of  benefit  or  ad- 

*  See  Tgnatias's  Testimony — Belsham's  Evidences. 

t  Metamorphosed  is  the  real  original  word. 

%  Mark,  i.  44.  §  Mark,  iv.  12. 


FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY.         311 

vantage  received  from  their  Saviour  to  the  mind,  body  or 
estate  of  any  man,  except  in  the  way  of  supplying  a  new- 
pretext  for  "levying-  contributions  on  the  folly,  weakness, 
and  ic^norance  of  mankind.     And 

15."  That  whereas  not  more  than  a  twentieth  part  of  the 
Roman  empire  had  embraced  the  Christian  religion,  pre- 
vious to  the  conversion  of  that  (as  Eusebius  calls  him) 
most  holy  emperor  Constantine :  the  worship  of  the  god 
TEsculapius  continued  in  the  heart  of  the  empire  under 
an  unbroken  succession  of  Pagan  bishops,  with  scarcely 
diminished  splendour  for  several  hundred  years  after  the 
pretended  diffusion  of  the  New  Light. 

16.  That  notwithstanding  Constantine's  destruction  of 
the  Phojnician  temples,  that  at  Athens  still  remained. 

17.  We  have  better  evidence  than  any  that  hath  yet 
been  pretended  for  Christianity,  of  the  belief  of  a  miracu- 
lous cure  wrought  by  this  deity,  as  late  as  the  year  a.  d. 
485,  which  is  thirty-five  years  on  this  side  the  middle  of 
the  fifth  century. 

18.  Nor,  whatever  Protestants  may  choose  to  think  and 
say  of  the  palpable  Paganism  of  Popery,  ought  they  to  be 
suffered  to  blink  the  historical  fact  that  the  religion  of  Con- 
stantine was  of  the  very  grossest  type  and  form  of  all  that 
was  ever  popish.*  So  that  they  who  choose  to  deny  that 
Christianity  and  Popery  are  one  and  the  same  religion, 
must  make  their  best  bargain  of  the  consequence  that  fol- 
lows on  their  denial — even  that  Christianity  kept  flounder- 
ing about,  and  found  no  settlement  in  the  world  for  whose 
benefit  it  was  intended,  till  it  was  taken  up  and  established 
by  our  English  Constantine,  Henry  the  Eighth. 


The  Christian  Apologists,  or  those  who  are  said  to 
have  addressed  apologies  to  the  Roman  Emperors,  or  Sen- 
ate, in  vindication  of  Christianity  and  of  Christians,  were 
in  order  of  time — 

1.  Quadratus,  Bishop  of  Athens       .       a.  d.   119 

2.  Aristides,  an  Athenian  Philosopher      .        121 

3.  Justin  Martyr 140 

*  See  his  desire  to  have  Mass  and  prayers  for  his  soul  after  death,  cap.  71.  And 
•'  how  he  commanded  that  iiis  picture  should  not  be  set  in  idolatrous  temples,"  that 
honour  being  reserved  for  Christian  churches — 16.  "How  he  commanded  that 
the  heathenish  military  legions  should  pray  on  the  Lord's  day." — 19.  And  his  pie- 
ty and  faith  in  the  Sign  of  the  Cross — 2.  And  how  the  Scythians  were  subjected 
and  overcome  by  the  Sign  of  the  Cross. — Ch.  5.  B.  4. 


S12  FATHERS  OP  THE  SECOND  CENTURY. 

4.  Melito A.  D.  141 

5.  Athenagoras       .         .         .         .  .         178     . 

6.  Tertullian 200 

7.  Minucius  Felix,  .         .         .         .  .        210 

8.  Arnobius  .  .  •  .  .  306 
The  difference  of  time  between  these  Christian  advo- 
cates, preckides  us  from  taking  any  view  of  their  writings 
distinctively,  from  their  occurrence  in  the  regular  succes- 
sion of  Christian  Fathers.  Of  the  two  first  no  remains  are 
extant. 


ARISTIDES,    A.    D.    121. 

An  Athenian  Philosopher  and  Christian  Apologist,  of 
whom  Eusebius  informs  us,  that  ''he  was  a  faithful  man, 
zealous  for  our  religion,  and  like  Quadratus,  wrote  an 
Apology  for  it  to  Adrian,  which,"  he  adds,  "is  still  pre- 
served among  many."  *  We  have,  however,  not  a  word  of 
this  ;  nor  should  we,  perhaps,  have  found  such  a  name  as 
that  of  Jlristides  among  the  faithful,  if  the  heathens  had 
not  had  their  Aristides  the  Just,  whose  name  was  wanted 
for  the  martyrology. 


HEGESIPPUS,    A.    D.    130. 

Is  placed  by  Dr.  Lardner  forty-three  years  later,  lived 
under  Adrian,  and  wrote  on  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  com- 
prising the  ecclesiastical  history  from  the  Apostles  down  to 
his  own  time.  Though  Eusebius  represents  him  as  hav- 
ing lived  in  the  time  of  the  Apostles  themselves,  or  as  im- 
mediately succeeding  them,  and  having  written  five  books 
of  Memoirs  of  the  Apostles,  from  the  fifth  of  which  he  gives 
us  a  long  extract  concerning  the  martyrdom  of  the  apostle 
James,  the  immediate  brother.of  Christ,  whom  Hegesippus 
thus  describes! — "  This  man  was  holy  from  his  mother's 
womb  ;  he  drank  neither  wine  nor  strong  drink ;  neither 
ate  any  creature  wherein  there  was  life.  He  was  neither 
shaven  nor  anointed,  nor  ever  used  a  bath.  To  him  alone 
was  it  lawful  to  enter  into  the  holy  places.  He  used  no 
woollen  garments,  but  wore  only  fine  linen,  and  he  went 
alone  into  the  temple.     He  was  found  on  his  knees,  suppli- 

*  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  jv.  c.  3.  vol.  iv. 

t  O'  HytjOimiof  em  t>;s  Tiyiox?;?  ttcov  aTtoarolwv  yjro/itivof  diado^^g — iv  toj 
ntfiTiTai  avTH  vnofivtjiiaji  lOTooei  rov  TQOTtov — x.r.  X.  aliter,  o  JwaijTTOf.— J5cc/. 
Hist.  lib.  ii.  p.  66,  c.  22.— B. 


FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY.         313 

eating  for  the  remission  of  the  sins  of  the  people  ;  so  that 
his  knees  were  overgrown  with  a  callosity  like  those  of  a 
camel ;  from  his  continual  kneeling  in  prayer  to  God, 
and  supplication  for  the  people  ;  and  from  the  excess  of  his 
righteousness  he  was  surnamed  The  Just,  and  Oblias, 
which  signifies  in  Greek  the  bulwark  of  the  peop/e,  and  righte- 
ousness.'''  * 

I  held  this  passage  worthy  of  preservation,  as  furnishing 
an  additional  proof  that  the  first  of  that  order  of  eccentric 
and  fanatical  creatures  whose  successors  afterwards  came 
to  be  called  Christians,  were  really  Egyptian  monks,  as 
Eusebius  has  in  positive  terms  acknowledged  them  to  be, 
the  regular  descendants  and  disciples  of  the  philosophy  of 
Pythagoras. 

None  of  the  genuine  works  of  this  Hegesippus  are  ex- 
tant ;  his  name,  however,  and  the  number  and  the  subjects 
of  the  volumes  ascribed  to  him  being  given,  there  were 
data  enow  for  Christian  piety  to  fall  to  work  upon  : 

"There  is  a  counterfeit  volume  of  five  books  under  his 
name,  the  translator  whereof  they  say  St.  Ambrose  was ; 
nay,  it  is  likelier  that  St.  Ambrose  himself  was  the  author." 

So  says  the  Ecclesiastical  Chronography,  afiixed  to  the 
oldest  editions  of  Eusebius.  With  Dr.  Lardner,  however, 
St.  Ambrose  is  an  honourable  man, — "so  are  they  all — ^all 
honourable  men !" 

I  can  neither  embrace  nor  entirely  reject  the  inference 
that  presents  itself,  from  the  fact  of  the  title  of  Hegesip- 
pus's  five  books — the  Memoirs  of  the  Apostles — being  precisely 
the  same  as  that  under  which  Justin  Martyr  seems  to  quote 
the  contents  of  our  New  Testament. 


JUSTIN    MARTYR,    A.   D.    140. 

Is  SO  called  from  his  being  believed  to  have  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom,— a  distinction  which  entirely  harmonizes  with  the 
admissions  of  Dionysius,  Origen,  Tertullian,  and  Melito, 
that  the  numbers  of  martyrs  was  really  very  few,  and  that 
consequently  martyrdom  was  no  common  occurrence  to  the 
professors  of  Christianity.  He  was  born  at  Flavia  Nea- 
polis,  anciently  called  Sichem,  a  city  of  Samaria  in  Pa- 

*  Ottov  y.ai  OixsQa  ax  snuv  ovSt  tuxfJvxov  tifaye  %vqov  mi  Ttjv  xnpaXTjv  ovk 
avefiri.      EXttiov  ovx  ijAen/^aTo  xai  paXaxeim  ovx  t/QijaaTo — xara.  t.  JL. 

Sii  aneaxXrixevai  xa  yotara  avtov  dixtiv  xttfir}/.ov  dia  ro  asi  xaiinrtiv  tni  yovv — 
*•  T.  2..  Hegesippus  apud  Eusebium. 

28 


314         FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY. 

lestine ;  a  circumstance  which  fully  accounts  for  tha 
Jewish  turn  and  character  which  any  system  of  philoso- 
phy that  had  percolated  his  brain,  would  necessarily 
imbibe.  Dr.  Lardner  describes  him  as  being  early  a  lover 
of  truth,  and  informs  us  that  he  studied  philosophy  under 
several  masters,  first  under  a  Stoic,  next  under  a  Peripa- 
tetic, then  under  a  Pythagorean,  and  lastly,  under  a  Plato- 
nic philosopher,  whose  principles  and  sentiments  he  pre- 
ferred above  all  others,  until  he  became  acquainted  with 
the  Christian  Religion,  which  he  then  embraced  as  the 
only  safe  and  profitable  ja/ii/osopAi/."* 

Fabricius  supposes  that  he  was  born  a.  d.  89,  and  suf- 
fered martyrdom  in  the  74th  year  of  his  age,  which  would 
be  A.  D.  163. 

The  testimony  of  Justin  Martyr  to  the  contents  of  the 
New  Testament,  for  the  sake  of  which  he  is  adduced  by 
Lardner,  is  rendered  nugatory  by  the  facts:  1st,  of  the 
existence  of  apocryphal  gospels,  which  contained  very 
much  of  the  same  contents,  and  in  the  same  language,  as 
those  that  have  been  since  received  into  the  canon  of  the 
New  Testament :  2.  That  Matthew's  and  Luke's  Gospels 
were  mere  compilations  from  previously  existing  docu- 
ments, from  which  Justin  might  have  made  his  extracts  as 
well,  or  rather  .than  from  the  compilations  of  our  Evan- 
gelists :  3.  That  he  has  never  mentioned  the  names  of  our 
Evangelists,  but  speaks  of  his  authorities  generally  as 
Commentaries,  or  Memoirs  of  the  Jlpostles :  4.  And  that  he  has 
also  quoted  passages  from  those  Gospels  which  the  Church 
has  rejected,  with  indications  of  his  entertaining  as  high 
respect  for  them  as  for  those  it  has  received. 

The  principal  works  of  Justin  Martyr  are  his  two  Apolo- 
gies, and  his  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  the  Jew,  in  two  parts; 
the  latter  of  which  is  generally  quoted  by  such  writers  as 
Porteus,  Doddridge,  and  Addison,  in  those  contemptible 
and  truly  wicked  treatises  on  the  Evidences  of  the  Chris- 
tian Religion,  which  are  written  for  the  purpose  of  being 
imposed  on  workhouse  children,  parish  apprentices,  and 
candidates  for  confirmation,  to  make  them  believe  in  the 
miraculous  propagation  of  the  Gospel. 

This  is  the  popular  quotation  from  it: — "There  exists 
not  a  people,  whether  Greeks  or  barbarians,  or  any  other 
race  of  men,  by  whatever  appellation  or  manners  they 

*  Tavirir  uorrjv  tvnirDcor  qiiXonotptar  nn(pciXrj  T«  xai  OvficptQov.  I  found  this 
alone  the  safe  and  profitable  philosophy,  are  his  words.  Surely,  that  word 
philosophy  is  an  infinitely  suspicious  term  for  Christianity  ! 


FATHERS    OP    THE    SECOND    CENTlflRY.  315 

may  be  disting-uished,  however  ignorant  of  arts  or  agricul- 
ture,—whether  they  dwell  under  tents,  or  wander  about  in 
covered  wag-gons, — among  whom  prayers  are  not  offered 
up,  in  the  name  of  a  crucified  Jesus,  to  the  Father  and 
Creator  of  all  things."  One's  wonder  that  so  early  a 
Christian  should  have  committed  himself  in  so  monstrous 
an  absurdity,  utterly  destructive  as  it  is  of  all  the  stories 
of  martyrdom  which  give  such  pathetic  effect  to  the  tale 
of  Christian  Evidences,  is  only  subdued  by  the  truly  para- 
lyzing impudence  of  those  who  would,  in  our  own  day, 
still  attempt  to  impose  it  on  Christian  congregations. 

The  character  and  genius  of  Justin's  Apologies  for  Chris- 
tianity will  be  best  appreciated  from  so  much  of  the  text 
itself  as  I  subjoin. 

Justin  Martyr'' s  Apology^  addressed  in  the  Year  141. 
A  Specimen. 

"Unto  the  Autocrat  Titus  ^lius  Adrianus;  unto  An- 
toninus Pius,  most  noble  Csesar  and  true  Philosopher ; 
unto  Lucius,  son  of  the  philosopher  Csesar,  and  adopted 
of  Pius,  favourers  of  learning  :  and  unto  the  sacred  Se- 
nate, with  all  the  people  of  Rome  ;  on  the  behalf  of  those 
persons  who,  among  all  sorts  of  men,  are  unjustly  hated 
and  reproached :  I,  Justin,  the  son  of  Priscus  Bacchius 
of  Flavia  Neapolis,  of  Palestine  in  Syria,  as  one  of  their 
number,  do,  suppliant  with  earnest  prayers,  present  this 
my  petition" — [omissis  omittendis.) — "You  hold  not  the 
scales  of  Justice  even ;  for,  instigated  by  headstrong  pas- 
sions, and  driven  on  also  by  the  invisible  whips  of  evil 
demons,  you  take  great  care  that  we  shall  suffer  though 
you  care  not  for  what.* 

"  For  verily  I  must  tell  you  that  heretofore  those  impure 
spirits  under  various  apparitions  went  into  the  daughters 
of  men,  and  defiled  boys,  and  dressed  up  such  scenes  of 
horror,  that  such  as  entered  not  into  the  reason  of  things, 
but  judged  by  appearance  only,  stood  aghast  at  the  spec- 
tres ;  and  being  shrunk  up  with  fear  and  amazement,  and 
never  imagining  them  to  be  devils,  called  them  gods,  and 
invoked  them  by  such  titles  as  each  devil  was  pleased  to 
nickname  himself  by.f 

"  Is  this  language  that  could  have  been  addressed  to  those  models  of  justice  and 
just  government,  Adrian  and  Antoninus  ?  Vi^ould  the  like  of*  it  have  been  endured 
by  any  Christian  Sovereign  ?  Has  it  so  much  as  an  appearance  of  plausibility  ? 

i  Reeves's  Apologies,  p.  10. 


316         FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY. 

"  If  then  we  hold  some  opinions  near  of  kin  to  the  poets 
and  philosophers  in  greatest  repute  among  you,  why  are 
we  thus  unjustly  hated  ?  For,  in  saying  that  all  things 
were  made  in  this  beautiful  order  by  God,  what  do  we 
seem  to  say  more  than  Plato  ?  When  we  teach  a  general 
conflagration,  what  do  we  teach  more  than  the  Stoics  ? 
By  opposing  the  worship  of  the  works  of  men's  hands,  we 
concur  with  Menander  the  comedian  ;  and  by  declaring 
the  Logos  the  first-begotten  of  God,  our  Master  Jesus 
Christ,  to  be  born  of  a  Virgin  without  any  human  mixture, 
and  to  be  crucified  and  dead,  and  to  have  risen  again,  and 
ascended  into  heaven,  we  say  no  more  in  this,  than  what 
you  say  of  those  whom  you  style  the  Sons  of  Jove. 

"  For  you  need  not  be  told  what  a  parcel  of  sons  the 
writers  most  in  vogue  among  you  assign  to  Jove.  There's 
Mercury,  Jove's  interpreter,  in  imitation  of  the  Logos,*  in 
worship  among  you.  There's  jEsculapius,  the  physician, 
smitten  by  a  bolt  of  thunder,  and  after  that  ascending 
into  heaven.  There's  Bacchus  torn  to  pieces,  and  Her- 
cules burnt  to  get  rid  of  his  pains.  There's  Pollux  and 
Castor,  the  sons  of  Jove  by  Leda,  and  Perseus  by  Danae. 
Not  to  mention  others,  I  would  fain  know  why  you 
always  deify  the  departed  Emperors,  and  have  a  fellow  at 
hand  to  make  affidavit  that  he  saw  Ca3sar  mount  to  heaven 
from  the  funeral  pile.f  As  to  the  son  of  God,  called 
Jesus,  should  we  allow  him  to  be  nothing  more  than  man, 
yet  the  title  of  the  Son  of  God  is  very  justifiable  upon  the 
account  of  his  wisdom,  considering  you  have  your  Mercu- 
ry in  worship,  under  the  title  of  the  Word  and  Messenger 
of  God. 

"As  to  the  objection  of  our  Jesus ''s  being  crucified,  I 
say,  that  suffering  was  common  to  all  the  forementioned 
sons  of  Jove,  but  only  they  suffered  another  kind  of 
death.  As  to  his  being  born  of  a  virgin,  you  have  your 
Perseus  to  balance  that.  As  to  his  curing  the  lame,  and 
the  paralytic,  and  such  as  were  cripples  from  their  birth, 
this  is  little  more  than  what  you  say  of  your  ^Escula- 
pius.| 

"  But  if  the  Christian  profession  must  still  meet  with 

*  This  Mercury  had,  however,  held  his  title  of  the  Logos  many  ages  before  it 
was  challenged  for  the  Christian  Mercury. — See  chapter  26. 

t  In  the  case  oi  lioinulua,  one  Julius  Procuhis,  a.  man  ef  exemplary  virtues, 
took  a  solemn  oaih  that  Romulus,  himself  appeared  to  him,  and  ordered  him  to 
inform  the  Senate  of  his  being  called  up  to  the  assembly  of  the  gods,  under  the 
name  oi  Quiriiius. — Plutarch,  and  Diojiyaim  Halicar.  lib.  2,  p.  124. 

%  See  iEeculapius  and  Jesus  Christ  compared,  chap.  20. 


FATHERS    OF    THE    SECOND  CENTURY.  317 

such  bitter  treatment,  remember  what  I  told  you  before, 
that  the  farthest  you  can  go  is  to  take  away  our  lives,* 
but  the  loss  of  this  life  will  certainly  be  no  ill  bargain  to 
us ;  but  you  indeed,  and  all  such  wicked  enemies  without 
repentance,  shall  one  day  dearly  pay  for  this  persecution 
in  fire  everlasting.f  And  as  far  as  these  things  shall 
appear  agreeable  to  truth,  so  far  we  wovdd  desire  you  to 
respect  'em  accordingly  :  but  if  they  seem  trifling,  despise 
them  as  trifles  :  however,  don't  proceed  against  the  profes- 
sors of  them,  who  are  people  of  the  most  inoflensive 
lives,  as  severely  as  against  your  professed  enemies.  For 
tell  you  I  must,  that  if  you  persist  in  this  course  of  iniquity, 
you  shall  not  escape  the  vengeance  of  God  in  the  other 
world."t 

The  reader  has  here  a  fair  specimen  of  the  whole  com- 
position, and  a  complete  view  of  the  state  and  character 
of  the  most  primitive  Christianity. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  fickleness  of  Justin's  character, 
and  the  infinitely  suspicious  style  of  his  Apology  (which  it 
is  impossible  to  believe  was  ever  presented  at  all,)  that  it 
is  in  the  highest  degree  doubtful  whether  he  was  really  a 
Christian,  or  any  thing  more  than  an  Ammonian  philoso- 
pher ;  that  is,  one  of  the  sect  of  Ammonius  SaccaSj  who  in 
the  second  century  maintained,  that  all  religions  were 
equally  founded  in  the  delirium  of  crazy  brains,  and  in 
the  craft  of  shrewd  ones  ;  and  that  there  was  no  such 
diflference  between  Paganism  and  Christianity,  but  that 
they  might  very  well  be  incorporated  and  considered  as 
one  and  the  same,  equally  proper  to  be  solemnly  taught, 
and  had  in  respect  by  the  common  people,  and  laughed  at 
in  secret  by  the  wise.  § 

The  story  of  his  martyrdom  has  no  other  plausibility 
of  history  than  a  brief  notice  of  a  lewd  quarrel  with  a 
cynical  philosopher,  Crescens,  who  was  provoked  to  knock 
him  on  the  head  for  bringing  a  charge  which  we  have  had 
Christian  bishops  who  would  have  felt  more  disposed  to 
.forgive  than  to  resent.  H  • 

The  attempt  to  represent  Justin  as  a  martyr,  strongly 

*  A  reluctant  admission  that  no  lives  had  been  taken  away. 

t  P.  76,  ch.  40.  t  P.  90. 

§  The  celebrated  Origen  had,  in  his  early  day.",  been  a  disciple  of  the  all-accom- 
modating Ammonius — Lardner,  vol.  1.  p.  520. 

II  /fgioxr;;  yovv  o  cvveoTtvaa?  ir}  utyahj  noXn  naidtQUOTia  fiiv  Tvarrag  vrrtQij- 
vtyxe.  Crescens  himself  gave  the  fittest  translation  of  this  passage. — Euseb.  Eccl 
mat.  lib.  4,  c.  15.  B. 

28* 


318         FATHERS  OP  THE  SECOND  CENTURY. 

illustrates  the  general  character  of  Christian  martyrdom. 
Those  who  suffered  by  the  most  just  and  impartial  admin- 
istration of  the  laws,  as  robbers  or  murderers,  or  who 
brought  on  themselves  the  consequences  of  the  provoca- 
tions they  had  given,  so  they  made  a  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity, never  failed  to  acquire  the  posthumous  renown  of 
martyrdom.  All  Christian  thieves  were  sure  to  pass  for 
saints ;  and  even  our  Henry  VIII.  and  Queen  Mary  have 
been  represented  as  the  victims  of  persecution,  suffering 
under  the  obstinacy  of  their  heretical  subjects. 


MELITO,  A.  D.  141. 
Bishop  of  Sardis. 
Melito,  supposed  by  some  of  the  moderns  to  be  the 
same  as  the  Angel  of  the  Church  of  Sardis,  whom  Christ  is 
represented  in  the  Revelation  of  St.  John,  as  ordering 
that  Apostle  to  address  in  the  Epistle  there  dictated,  was 
Bishop  of  Sardis  in  Lydia.  In  the  very  ancient  Chrono- 
graphy  affixed  to  the  oldest  English  editions  of  Eusebius, 
and  which,  upon  the  whole  I  find  easiest  to  be  conciliated 
to  some  sort  of  consistency  with  circumstances,  he  is 
called  Meliton,  and  placed  next  to  Justin,  at  a.  d.  141, 
which  is  sixty-four  years  earlier  than  his  place  in  Lard- 
ner.  He  dedicated  an  Apology  to  Marcus  Antoninus  in 
behalf  of  the  Christian  community,  then  under  suffering, 
which  Eusebius,  in  his  Chronicle,  places  at  the  year  170. 
As  Marcus  Antoninus  began  his  reign  March  7,  a.  d.  161, 
this  Apology  at  least  cannot  be  dated  earlier  than  that 
time;  and  taking  it,  upon  the  most  laborious  investiga- 
tion, to  be  one  of  the  most  genuine  and  authentic  docu- 
ments, of  so  high  antiquity,  that  antiquity  could  ever 
supply :  it  may  be  well  esteemed  to  be  matter  of  real  and 
substantial  evidence.  Making  the  due  allowance  for  the 
barbarity  of  the  times,  and  hoping,  as  we  may,  that  it 
was  the  cruelty  of  others,  and  not  his  own  fanaticism, 
that  made  him  an  eunuch,  one  cannot  enough  admire  the 
elegant  simplicity  and  plain  and  rational  statement  of  the 
probable,  and  therefore  convincing,  facts  that  rest  on  the 
authority  of  his  most  unexceptionable  statement.  Euse- 
bius has  preserved  a  large  fragment  of  this  important 
document,  from  which  Dr.  Lardner  liberally  renders  for  us 
the  annexed  paragraph,  wliich  he  says  is  remarkable  for 
politeness,  as  well  as  upon  other  accounts : 

says  he,   "  are  now  persecuted  and  ha- 


FATHERS  OP  THE  SECOND  CENTURY.         319 

passed  throughout  all  Asia  by  ne^v•  decrees,  which  was 
NEVER  DONE  BEFORE  ;*  and  impudent  sycophants,  and  such 
as  covet  the  possessions  of  others,  taking  occasion  from 
the  edicts,  rob  without  fear  or  shame,  and  cease  not  to 
plunder  those  who  have  offended  in  nothing.  If  these 
things  are  done  by  your  order,  let  them  be  thought  to  be 
well  done — for  it  is  not  reasonable  to  believe  that  a  just 
emperor  should  ever  decree  what  is  unjust — and  we  shall 
cheerfully  bear  the  reward  of  such  a  death.  But  if  this 
resolution  and  new  edict,  which  is  not  fit  to  be  enacted 
against  barbarians  and  enemies,  proceeds  not  from  you, 
much  more  would  we  entreat  you  not  to  neglect  and  give 
us  up  to  this  public  rapine." 

But  perhaps  it  was  not,  in  Dr.  Lardner's  view,  conducive 
to  the  interests  of  piety  and  religion,  to  have  continued 
his  quotation  into  the  very  next  paragraph  of  this  docu- 
ment. For  the  importance  of  the  truth  with  which  it  teems, 
this  single  passage  outweighs  the  value  of  a  thousand 
volumes  of  factitious  evidences.  Other  testimonies  only 
serve  to  thicken  the  darkness,  and  to  remove  the  truth  we 
seek  still  further  and  further  from  the  reach  of  our  re- 
search ;  this  leads  us  directly  to  it,  and  with  so  much  the 
happier  effect,  as  it  appears  to  have  been  no  part  of  our 
guide's  design  to  have  done  so.  The  sincerity  and  devo- 
tion of  this  Father's  mind  to  the  Christian  cause,  renders 
a  testimony  like  his  such  as  Christians  themselves  must  re- 
spect. The  adverse  bearing  of  the  testimony  of  a  friendly 
party,  like  the  favourable  bearing  of  the  admissions  of  an 
enemy,  is  universally  considered  to  constitute  the  most 
satisfactory  sort  of  historical  certainty.  •  I  hold  the  pre- 
servation of  this  important  passage,  and  bringing  it  forth 
into  the  prominence  it  challenges,  worth  a  place  in  my 
text  itself,  and  the  more  so,  as  I  feel  assured  that  there  is 
no  writer  on  the  Christian  evidences  whatever  who  has 
hitherto  quoted  the  passage,  or  who,  if  he  had  possessed 
dihgence  of  research  enough  to  have  found  it,  would  not 
have  taken  pains  to  bury  it  again.     This  it  is : 

IT  yoo  y.a^'  yjuag  tpiXoaocpia,  nqorsfiov  fiev  «v  ^aQ(iaQOig  Tjxuaaev.  Enard^riaaaa 
de  roig  aot?  i&vtai  xaju  rtiv  avyovarov  tow  aov  nqoyovov  fityaXtjv  a^jfjv,  eyewi-^ij 
fiaXiara  rrj  at]  (iaaiXsta  aiaiov  ctf a9ov. 

"For  the  philosophy  which  we  profess,  truly  flourished 
aforetime  among  the  barbarous  nations ;  but  having  blos- 
somed again  (or  been  transplanted)  in  the  great  reign  of 

♦  To  yap  ovSe  nwnoTi  ytvofitvov. 


320         FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY. 

thy  ancestor  Augustus,  it  proved  to  be  above  all  things 
ominous  of  good  fortune  to  thy  kingdom." 

The  passage  continues:  "For  from  thenceforth  the  Ro- 
man empire  increased  in  glory,  whose  inheritor  now  you 
are,  greatly  beloved  indeed  by  all  your  subjects  :  both  you 
and  your  son  will  be  continually  prayed  for.  Retain, 
therefore,  this  religion,  which  grew  as  your  empire  grew  ; 
which  began  with  Augustus,  which  was  reverenced  by 
your  ancestors  before  all  other  religions.  Only  Nero  and 
Domitian,  through  the  persuasion  of  certain  envious  and 
malicious  persons,  were  disposed  to  bring  our  doctrine 
into  hatred.  But  your  godly  ancestors  corrected  their 
blind  ignorance,  and  rebuked  oftentimes  by  their  epistles 
the  rash  enterprises  of  those  who  were  ill  affected  towards 
us.  And  your  own  father  wrote  unto  the  municipal  author- 
ities in  our  behalf,  that  they  should  make  no  innovations, 
nor  practice  anything  prejudicial  to  the  Christians.  And 
of  yourself,  we  are  fully  persuaded  that  we  shall  obtain 
the  object  of  our  humble  petition,  in  that  your  opinion  and 
sentence  is  correspondent  unto  that  of  your  predecessors, 
yea,  and  even  more  gracious,  and  far  more  religious." 

This  document — and  it  is  wholly  indisputable — is  ab- 
solutely fatal  to  all  the  pretended  historical  evidences  of 
Christianity,  inasmuch  as  it  demonstrates  the  facts — 

1st.  That  it  is  not  true  that  Christians,  as  such,  had  ever 
at  any  time  been  the  objects  of  any  extensive  or  notorious 
political  persecution. 

2nd.  That  it  is  not  true  that  Christianity  had  any  such 
origin  as  has  been  generally  imagined  for  it. 

3rd.  That  it  is  not  true  that  it  made  its  first  appearance 
at  the  time  generally  assigned ;  for,  nqoreQov  jjxftaotv,  it  had 
flourished  before  that  time. 

4th.  That  it  is  not  true  that  it  originated  in  Judea,  which 
was  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire  ;  for  it  was  an  impor- 
tation from  some  foreign  countries  which  lay  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  that  empire. 

It  is  enough  to  arrange  in  their  places  the  minor  names 
of  Apollinaris,  Dionysius  of  Corinth,  Athenagoras,  Theo- 
philus  of  Antioch,  Miltiades,  Serapion,  and  whoever  else 
there  may  have  been  in  the  space  of  time  from  Melito, 
whose  testimony  is  so  essential,  till  we  come  to  these  dis- 
tinguished luminaries  of  the  church,  and  pillars  of  the 
faith,  with  whom  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  be  acquaint- 
ed.    The  rest  are  but  as  sparks  on  tinder. 


FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY.        321 


ST.  IREN^US,  A.  D.  193. 

Bishop  of  Lyons. 

Learned  men  are  not  agreed  about  the  time  of  Irenaeus, 
or  of  his  principal  work  against  heresies.  He  was  bishop 
of  Lyons  in  Gaul.  One  cannot  reasonably  fix  him  at  so 
early  a  date  as  is  sometimes  claimed  for  him  (as  having 
been  the  disciple  of  Polycarp,  who  was  the  disciple  of 
St.  John),  on  account  of  the  later  date  of  the  heresies  and 
corruptions  of  Christianity,  against  which  he  has  written, 
and  which  must  of  course  have  had  time  to  have  spread, 
and  to  have  become  very  serious  evils,  before  they  could 
have  called  for  the  composition  of  so  learned  and  laijorious 
a  work  intended  to  expose  and  refute  them.  It  would  be 
incompatible  with  that  argumentative  generosity  which  I 
have  proposed  to  myself  as  the  principle  of  this  Diegesis, 
to  take  up  as  a  proposition  the  earliest  date  that  the 
learned  would  grant  me  for  this  Father,  for  the  sake  of 
pouncing  on  the  fatal  corollary  that  must  follow;  i.  e.  if  so 
early  wrote  Irenaeus,  so  much  earlier  still  must  those  he- 
retical forms  of  Christianity  have  obtained  in  the  world, 
which  IrenaBus  wrote  to  refute;  they,  then,  were  not  de- 
rived from  Christianity,  but  Christianity  was  derived  from 
them;  they  are  not  corruptions  and  depravations  from  an 
original  stock  of  primitive  orthodoxy,  but  they  are  them- 
selves the  primitive  type,  and  orthodoxy  is  either  a  cor- 
ruption or  an  improvement  upon  them.  Like  all  the  rest 
of  the  noble  army,  Irenaeus  contrived  tp  carry  off  the 
crown  of  martyrdom;  but  as,  at  any  rate,  the  blood-thirsty 
Pagans  suffered  him  to  enjoy  his  bishopric  in  peace  till  he 
was  ninety-three  years  old,  he  had  not  much  to  complain 
of,  in  their  expediting  so  slow  a  progress  to  glory. 

He  is  honoured  by  Dr.  Lardner  with  the  epithet,  "  this 
excellent  person;''^  and  is  called  by  Photius  the  divine  Irenaeus. 
The  best  account  of  him  which  the  English  reader  can 
expect  to  find,  is  in  Middleton's  Free  Inquiry  into  the  Mi- 
raculous Powers,  &c.  in  which  he  is  neither  spared  nor 
flattered.  The  best  apology  for  him  is  one  of  the  oldest  in 
being,  and  which  we  have  continual  occasion  to  remember 
in  reading  the  works  of  Christian  divines,  "  Remember 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  saith,  Omnis  homo  mendax.''''  We 
must  not  wonder,  then,  that  Irenaeus  should  have  been  in 
the  habit  of  asserting  as  true,  not  only  what  he  himself 
knew  to  be  false,  but,  in  the  plenitude  of  that  security  of 


S22  FATHERS    OP    THE    SECOND    CENTURY. 

not  being-  contradicted,  and  of  being  able  to  cloak  himself 
up  in  the  sanctity  of  affected  contempt  for  all  who  were 
more  honest  and  better  informed  (on  which  all  other 
churchmen  as  well  as  he  place  their  ultimate  reliance), 
that  he  should  put  forth  as  truth  what  he  knew  was  im- 
possible to  be  so,  and  what  every  sensible  man  in  the  world 
must  have  known  so  too;  that  he  should  audaciously  mis- 
read inscriptions  on  public  monuments,  and  pretend  au- 
thorities for  the  proof  of  the  Christian  religion,  even  in 
the  teeth  of  thousands  who  both  knew  and  saw  that  there 
was  nothing  of  the  sort  in  existence. 

Thus  he  pretended  that  there  was  a  monument  or  image 
between  two  bridges  on  the  river  Tyber  at  Rome,  bearing 
an  inscription  to  Simon  the  holy  God,*  which  the  Devil  had 
caused  to  be  erected  there  to  the  honour  of  Simon  Magus, 
whom  they  were  to  be  persuaded  by  that  sort  of  proof 
that  their  ancestors  had  worshipped;  thence  to  infer  a  co- 
incidence with  the  apostolic  history. 

Amid  innumerable  ridiculous  stories,  he  tells  usf  that 
John,  who  leaned  on  the  breast  of  our  Saviour,  was  a 
priest,  a  martyr,  and  a  doctor  of  divinity,  and  wore  a 
petalon  (some  part  of  the  Popish  trumpery),  which,  on 
such  authority  as  this,  was  to  claim  the  sanction  of  apos- 
tolic institution.  The  distinctness  and  solemnity  of  his 
assurance  that  miracles  were  still  in  full  vogue  in  the 
church  in  his  days;  that  "  they  still  possessed  the  power 
of  raising  the  dead,  as  the  Lord  and  his  apostles  did, 
through  prayer;  and  that  oftentimes  the  whole  church  of 
some  certain  place,  by  reason  of  some  urgent  cause,  with 
fasting  and  chaste  prayer  hath  brought  to  pass  that  the 
departed  spirit  of  the  dead  hath  returned  to  the  corpse, 
and  the  man  was,  by  the  earnest  prayers  of  the  saints,  re- 
stored to  life  again."  Such  a  man  never  expected  that 
rational  beings  would  believe  him:  no  good  cause  would 
thank  him  for  his  advocacy. 

However  early  Irenrous  be  placed  in  the  order  of  Chris- 
tian Fathers  (Dodwell  supposed  that  he  was  born  as  early 
as  the  year  97,  and  Dr.  Lardner  places  him  at  a.  d.  178, 
and  distinguishes  him  as  a  saint),  so  early  prevailed  many 
of  the  grossest  absurdities  and  superstitions  which  Pro- 
testants are  wont  to  consider  as  peculiarly  characteristic  of 
the  church  of  Rome. 


*  Euseb.  lib.  2,  c.  34.  t  Ibid.  lib.  3,  c.  28. 


FATHERS    OF    THE    SECOND    CENTURY.  323 

PANTiENUS,    A.   D.    193. 

Pant^nus  has  claim  on  our  acquaintance  as  master  of 
Clemens  Alexandrinus  and  Origen,  and  head  of  the  univer- 
sity or  school  of  Alexandria,  in  Egypt;  though,  on  the  best 
calculations,  it  would  seem  that  he  was  living  even  in  the 
third  century.  His  high  authority  is  indicated  in  the  cir- 
cumstance of  Origen's  pleading  his  example  in  justification 
of  his  study  of  heathen  learning.  Photius  speaks  of  him 
as  a  hearer  of  some  who  had  seen  the  apostles,  and  even 
of  some  of  the  apostles  themselves. 

Eusebius  bears  this  important  testimony  to  his  character 
and  place  in  history:*  "At  that  time  {soil,  about  the  period 
of  the  accession  of  Commodus)  there  presided  in  the 
school  of  the  faithful  at  that  place  {scil.  Alexandria)  a  man 
highly  celebrated  on  account  of  his  learning,  by  name 
PantcBHus.  For  there  had  been  from  ancient  time  erected 
among  them  a  school  of  sacred  learning,  which  remains  to 
this  day;  and  we  have  understood  that  it  has  been  wont 
to  be  furnished  with  men  eminent  for  their  eloquence  and 
the  study  of  divine  things;  and  it  is  said  that  this  person 
excelled  others  of  that  time,  having  been  brought  up  in 
the  Stoic  philosophy;  that  he  was  nominated  or  sent  forth 
as  a  missionary  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Christ  to  the  na- 
tions of  the  East^  and  to  have  travelled  into  India.  For 
there  were  yet  at  that  time  many  evangelists  of  the  word, 
animated  with  a  divine  zeal  of  imitating  the  apostles,  by- 
contributing  to  the  enlargement  of  the  gospel,  and  build- 
ing up  the  church:  of  whom  this  Pantsenus  was  one;  who 
is  said  to  have  gone  to  the  Indians,  where  it  is  commonly 
said  he  found  the  gospel  of  Matthew,  written  in  the  He- 
brew tongue,  which  before  his  arrival  had  been  delivered 
to  some  in  that  country  who  had  the  knowledge  of  Christ, 
to  whom  Bartholomew,  one  of  the  apostles,  is  said  to  have 
preached,  and  to  have  left  with  them  that  writing  of  Mat- 
thew, and  that  it  was  preserved  among  them  to  that  time. 
This  Pantffinus,  therefore,  for  his  many  excellent  perform- 
ances, was  at  last  made  president  of  the  school  of  Alex- 
andria, where  he  set  forth  the  treasures  of  the  divine 
principles  both  by  word  of  mouth  and  by  his  writings. "f 

What  St.  Jerom  says  of  this  ancient  Christian,  is  to  this 
purpose:  "  Pantosnus,  a  philosopher  of  the  Stoic  sect,  ac- 
cording to  an  ancient  custom  of  the  city  of  Alexandria, 
was,  at  the  request  of  ambassadors  from  India,  sent  into 

*  I  find  this  passage  ready  translated  for  me  by  Lardner,  vol.  1,  p.  390. 
t  Eccles.  Hist.  lib.  5,  c.  9. 


324        FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY. 

that  country  by  Demetrius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  where 
he  found  that  Bartholomew,  one  of  the  twelve  apostles, 
had  preached  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  ac- 
cording to  the  gospel  of  Matthew,  which  he  brought  back 
with  him  to  Alexandria,  written  in  Hebrew  letters."* 

Here  have  we  another  clue  to  the  real  history  of  Chris- 
tianity, winding  up  to  the  same  core  of  the  labyrinth,  and 
bringifig  us  through  a  varied  tract  to  the  result  which  we 
have  already  ascertained,  under  the  guidance  of  Melito, 
Eusebius,  and  Philo.  Pantasnus,  a  missionary  from  the 
Therapeutan  college  of  Alexandria,  seems  to  have  brought 
from  India  the  idolatrous  legends  of  the  Hindoo  god 
Chrishna,  whom  he  imported  into  the  Roman  dominions, 
like  a  good  Eclectic  as  he  was,  uniting  the  characters  of 
the  Grecian,  or  Phoenician  Yesus,  and  the  Indian 
Chrishna,  "in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,''^  whose  history,  at 
first  contained  in  the  Diegesis,  or  general  narrative,  was 
re-edited  by  three  Egyptian  secretaries,  afterwards  yclept 
the  evangelists,  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  and  subse- 
quently enlarged  by  an  appendix  of  Egyptian  rhapsodies, 
under  the,  denomination  of  the  Gospel  according  to  St. 
John.  The  discovery  of  the  unknown  term  in  a  quadratic 
equation,  never  more  entirely  responded  to  all  the  requi- 
sites of  the  problem,  than  these  facts  do  to  every  rational 
query  that  can  arise  out  of  the  phenomena  of  the  gospel 
learend. 


CLEMENS    ALEXANDRINUS,    A.    D.    194. 

Or,  as  he  is  entitled  by  Dr.  Lardner,  St.  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, was,  as  Eusebius  intimates,  originally  a  heathen, 
though  he  succeeded  Pantaanus  as  president  of  the  monk- 
ish university  of  Alexandria,  which  mankind  have  to  thank 
for  the  concoction  or  getting  up  the  whole  gospel  scheme, 
as  originally  imported  from  India^  and  modified  to  the 
taste  of  the  nations  which  acknowledged  the  supremacy 
of  Rome.  Mr.  Dodwell  was  of  opinion  that  all  the  works 
of  Clement  which  are  remaining  were  written  between  the 
years  193  and  the  end  of  195.  His  works  are  very  exten- 
sive, his  authority  very  high  in  the  church,  and  his  name 
and  place  in  history  chiefly  to  be  remembered  on  account 
of  the  frequent  quotation  of  his  Slromata,  or  fragments,  and 
othe^'  pieces.  In  point  of  evidence  he  aftbrds  nothing,  ex- 
cept that  from  the  circumstance  of  the  four  gospels  having 
received  the  more  particular  countenance  of  the  Alexan- 

*  St.  Jerom  quoted  by  Lardner,  vol.  1,  p.  391. 


FATHERS  OP  THE  SECOND  CENTURY.        325 

drine  college,  over  which  he  presided,  he  and  all  other 
aspirants  to  university  honours,  and  the  ecclesiastical 
emoluments  that  would  follow  them,  must  be  expected  to 
pay  all  due  deference  to  the  books  his  university  had 
chosen  to  patronize. 

TERTULLIAN,  A.  D.  200. 

Quintus  Septimus  Florens  Tertullianus,  the  last  that 
can  be  read  into  the  second  century,  and  the  very  first  of 
all  the  Latin  Fathers,  was,  like  the  rest  of  them,  original- 
ly a  heathen,  was  afterwards  a  most  zealous  and  orthodox 
Christian,  and  finally  fell  into  heresy.  He  was  made 
presbyter  of  the  church  of  Carthage  in  Africa,  of  which 
he  was  a  native,  about  a.  d.  193,  and  died,  as  may  be  con- 
jectured, about  the  year  220.  As  he  had  become  tinctured 
with  heresy,  he  lost  the  honour  of  his  place  in  "  the  noble 
army  of  martyrs.''^ 

The  character  of  his  style,  as  given  by  Lactantius,  may 
be  allowed  by  all. — "  It  is  rugged,  unpolished,  and  very 
obscure;"  and  yet,  as  Cave  observes,  it  is  lofty  and  mas- 
culine, and  carries  a  kind  of  majestic  eloquence  with  it, 
that  gives  a  pleasant  relish  to  the  judicious  and  inquisitive 
reader.  "  There  appears,"  says  Lardner,  in  his  writinffs 
frequent  tokens  of  true  unaffected  humility  and  modesty- 
virtues  in  which  the  primitive  Christians  were  generally 
so  very  eminent." 

Of  this  assertion  of  Dr.  Lardner,  and,  consequently,  of 
the  character  of  assertions  likely  to  be  made  by  the  Doc- 
tor generally,  where  the  honour  of  Christianity  and  of 
Christians  was  to  be  maintained,  I  leave  the  reader  to 
judge  from  the  annexed 

Specimen  of  St.  Tertullianus  true  unaffected  humility  and  mod- 
esty, in  his  discourse  against  the  sin  of  going  to  the  Thea- 
tre. 

"  You  are  fond  of  spectacles:  expect  the  greatest  of  all 
spectacles — the  last  and  eternal  judgment  of  the  universe! 
How  shall  I  admire,  how  laugh,  how  rejoice,  how  exult, 
when  I  behold  so  many  proud  monarchs  and  fancied  gods 
groaning  in  the  lowest  abyss  of  darkness;  so  many  magis- 
trates, who  persecuted  the  name  of  the  Lord,  liquefying  in 
fiercer  fires  than  they  ever  kindled  against  the  Christians; 
so  many  sage  philosophers  blushing  in  red-hot  flames,  with 
their  deluded  scholars;  so  many  celebrated  poets  tremb- 
ling before  the  tribunal,  not  of  Minos,  but  of  Christ;  so 
29 


326        FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY. 

many  tragedians,  more  tuneful  in  the  expression  of  their 
own  suffering's;  so  many  dancers,"*  &c. — I  hope  the  rea- 
der may  think  here  is  humility  and  modesty  enough! 
Specimen  of  Tertullian's  manner  of  reasoning  on  the  evidences 
of  Christianity. \ 

"  I  find  no  other  means  to  prove  myself  to  be  impudent 
with  success,  and  happily  a  fool,  than  by  my  contempt  of 
shame;  as,  for  instance, — I  maintain  that  the  Son  of  God 
was  born:  why  am  I  not  ashamed  of  maintaining  such  a 
thing?  Why!  but  because  it  is  itself  a  shameful  thing. 
— I  maintain  that  the  Son  of  God  died:  well,  that  is 
wholly  credible  because  it  is  monstrously  absurd. — I 
maintain  that  after  having  been  buried,  he  rose  again:  and 
that  I  take  to  be  absolutely  true,  because  it  was  manifestly 
impossible."! 

This  language,  not  being  protected  by  privilege  of  in- 
epiration,  is  allowed  to  convey  its  full  drift  of  absurdity  to 
our  awakened  intelligence.  It  is  safest  to  go  to  sleep  and 
give  God  the  glory,  over  the  perfectly  parallel  rhapsodies 
of  the  inspired  chief  of  sinners. 

Where  TertuUian  is  intelligible,  his  testimony  to  the 
status  rerum  of  Christianity  up  to  his  time,  is  highly  impor- 
tant. And  'tis  from  his  Apology  addressed  to  the  Emperor 
and  the  Roman  Senate  in  the  year  198,  which  Dr.  Lard- 
ner  justly  calls  his  master-piece,  that  we  collect  a  testi- 
mony corroborative  of  that  of  Melito,  of  Origen  himself, 
and  of  the  highest  degree  of  conjectural  probability,  in 
demonstration  of  the  utter  falsehood  and  romance  of 
the  whole  proposition  on  which  Paley  rests  the  stress  of 
his  Evidences  of  Christianity.      So  far  is  it  from  truth, 

*  Supersunt  alia  spectacula,  il!e  ultimus  et  perpetuus  judicii  dies,  ille  nationibns 
insperatus  ilie  derisus,  cum  tanta  secuij  vetustas  et  tot  ejus  nativitates  uno  igne  hau- 
rientur.  Q,use  tunc  spectaculi  latitude  ?  quid  admirer  !  quid  rideam  !  ubi  gaudeam, 
ubi  exultem,  spectans  tot  et  tantos  reges,  qui  ia  coelum  recepti  nunciabantur,  in  imis 
tenebris  congemLscentes  ?  item  ptssides  persecutores  Dominici  nominis,  siEvioribus 
quam  ipsi  flammis  seevierunt  liquescentes  ?  Q,uos  sapientes  philosophos  coram  dis- 
cipulis  suis  una  conflagrantibus  erubescentes,  etiam  Poetas,  non  Rhadamanti  nee 
ad  Minois  sed  ad  inopinati  Christi  tribunal  palpitantes,  &c. — Ita  citat  locutn  Pa- 
ganus  Obtrectator,  p.  150.     Sujficiat  lectori  justo pro  auctoritate. — R.  T- 

t  De  Spectaculis,  c.  30. 

t  So  rendered  and  authenticated  by  the  original  text,  quoted  in  my  "  Syntag- 
ma," p.  106,  my  first  publication  from  this  prison  ;  a  work  which  those  whose 
scandalous  impostures  and  audacious  slanders  provoked,  find  it  wisest  to  treat  with 
contempt.  The  Christian  war  is  always  Parthian.  Its  tact  is  to  throw  out  its 
calumnies,  but  never  to  allow  the  accused  his  privilege  of  defence.  To  read  the 
vituperations  that  Christians  heap  on  infidels,  is  an  exercise  of  godly  piety:  to  ven- 
ture but  to  look  on  an  infidel's  vindication,  is  playing  with  edged  tools. — Nona 
rail  BO  loud,  as  they  who  rail  ia  safety  ! 


FATHERS  OF  THE  SECOND  CENTURY.        327 

that  Christians  were  ever  the  victims  of  intolerance  and 
persecution  on  the  score  of  their  profession  of  a  pvire  and 
holy  doctrine,  that  in  addition  to  the  testimony  of  the 
general  sense  and  fairest  scope  of  the  greatest  number  of 
texts  of  Scripture  itself,*  the  truly  respectable  suffrage  of 
Melito  bishop  of  Sardis,  the  express  declaration  of  Origen,f 
that  up  to  his  time  the  number  of  martyrs  was  very  incon- 
siderable, and  above  all,  to  the  irresistible  conviction  of 
all  the  rational  probabilities  of  the  case,  we  may  now  add 

THE    TESTIMONF    OF    TERTULLIAN| 

"  That  the  icisest  of  the  Roman  Emperors  have  been  protectors  of 
the  Christians. 

"•  The  Christian  persecutors  have  been  always  men  di- 
vested of  justice,  piety,  and  common  shame,  upon  whose 
government  you  yourselves  have  put  a  brand,  and  res- 
cinded their  acts  by  restoring  those  whom  they  con- 
.^emned.  But  of  all  the  Emperors  down  to  this  present 
reign,  who  understood  any  thing  of  religion  or  humanity, 
name  me  one  who  ever  persecuted  the  Christians.  On 
the  contrary,  we  show  you  the  excellent  M.  Aurelius  for 
our  protector  and  patron,  who  though  he  could  not  pub- 
licly set  aside  the  penal  laws,  yet  he  did  as  well,  he 
publicly  rendered  them  ineffectual  in  another  way,  by 
discouraging  our  accusers  with  the  last  punishments,  viz. 
burning  alive. 

"  Does  not  the  prison  sweat  with  your  heathen  crimi- 
nals continually? — Do  not  the  mines  continually  groan 
with  the  load  of  heathens? — Are  not  your  wild  beasts  fat- 
tened with  heathens? — Now,  among  all  these  malefactors, 
there's  not  a  Christian  to  be  found  for  any  crime  but  that 
of  his  name  only,  or  if  there  be,  we  disown  him  for  a 
C/in'.siian."§ 

Such  language  as  we  have  seen  Tertullian  use,  and  such 
a  spirit  of  annoyance  and  actual  assault  upon  the  rights 

*  1  Timothy,  iv.  S.  Godliness  is  profitable,  &c.— 1  Peter,  iii.  13.  And  who 
is  he  that  will  harm  you,  if  ye  be  followers  of  that  which  is  good  ? — v.  16,  That 
they  may  be  ashamed  that  falsely  accuse  your  good  conversation. — Matthew,  v. 
That  they  may  see  your  good  works,  and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

t  Quoted  in  Gibbon,  chap.  15. 

t  Reeves'  Apologies  of,  &c. 

§  This  is  an  eaily  specimen  of  primitive  Quakerism,  the  policy  of  a  sect  of  the 
most  arrogant,  most  ignorant,  fraudulent,  intolerant,  and  mexorable  men  that  ever 
adorned  the  gospel  and  disgraced  humanity.  In  every  thing  the  diametrical  reverse 
of  their  professions.  It  may  seem  hard  to  say  that  there  never  was  an  honest  man 
among  them ;  but  there  never  was  a  hard  saying  so  lilie  a  true  one. 


328  '<"'-    FATHERS    OF    THE    THIRD    CENTURY. 

and  liberties  of  their  Pagan  fellow  citizens,  must  occasion- 
ally have  provoked  the  passions  of  any  men  who  had  no 
supernatural  graces  to  sulxlue  and  coerce  the  sentiments 
of  natm-e.  The  spitting  in  a  magistrate's  face — the  inter- 
ruption of  Pagan  worship,  the  total  expulsion  of  their 
own  children  and  brethren  from  all  membership,  relation, 
or  succession  of  inheritance,  in  the  families  of  which 
they  were  a  part,  upon  their  not  conforming  to  the  faith;* 
and  all  such  sort  of  conduct  as  persons  who  desired 
martyrdom,  and  delighted  in  being  ill  used,  would  be 
likely  to  adopt,  might  be  followed  frequently  by  just,  and 
sometimes  by  excessive  retribution;  but — "  it  is  certain 
that  we  may  appeal  to  the  grateful  confessions  of  the 
first  Christians,  that  the  greatest  part  of  those  magistrates 
who  exercised  in  the  provinces  the  authority  of  the 
Emperor  or  of  the  Senate,  and  to  whose  hands  alone  the 
jurisdiction  of  life  and  death  Avas  intrusted,  behaved  like 
men  of  polished  manners  and  liberal  education,  who  res- 
pected the  rules  of  justice,  and  who  were  conversant  with 
the  precepts  of  philosophy.!  In  one  word,  the  Pagan 
magistrates  neither  M^ere,  nor  pretended  to  be,  under  the 
influence  of  supernatural  motives,  and  there  are  no 
natural  motives  to  incline  any  men  to  be  cruel  and  inex- 
orable. 

CHAPTER  XLII. 

THE    FATHERS    OF    THE    THIRD    CENTURY. 


ORIGEN,  A.  D.  230. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  follow  the  isoteric  or  interior  evi- 
dences of  the  Christian  religion  below  the  close  of  the  sec- 
ond century,  for  the  sake  of  bringing  the  reader  acquainted 
with  the  two  most  distinguished  persons  that  ever  were 
concerned  with  it;  Origen,  its  most  distinguished  priest, 
and  Constantine,  its  most  distinguished  patron.  Origen, 
was  born  in  that  great  cradle  and  nursery  of  all  supersti- 
tion, Egypt,  in  the  year  184  or  185 — that  is,  the  fifth  or 
sixth  of  the  Emperor  Commodus,  and  died  in  the  sixty- 
ninth  or  seventieth  year  of  his  age,  a.  d.  253.      Though 


Quojque  Ipse  niisserima,  vidi 


Et  quorum!  Quis  talia  faudo! 
t  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall,  chap.  15. 


FATHERS    OF    THE    THIRD    CENTURY.  329 

Eusebius  flatly  denies  the  assertion  of  Porphyry,  that 
Origen  had  been  originally  a  heathen, — and  was  after- 
wards converted  to  Christianity,  yet  Origen  is  proud  to 
vindicate  to  himself  his  imitation  of  his  predecessor, 
Pantrenus,  in  the  study  of  profane  learning.  He  had 
studied  under  that  celebrated  philosopher,  Ammonias 
Saccus,  who,  in  the  second  century,  had  taught  that 
'•  Christianity  and  Paganism  when  rightly  understood, 
differed  in  no  essential  points,  but  had  a  common  origin, 
and  really  were  one  and  the  same  religion,  nothing  but 
the  schismatical  trickery  of  fanatical  adventurers,  v/ho 
sought  to  bring  over  the  trade  and  profits  of  spiritualizing 
into  their  own  hands,  having  introduced  a  distinction 
where  in  reality  there  was  no  difference." 

This  was  unquestionably  the  orthodox  doctrine  of  the 
second  century,  and  it  so  entirely  quadrates  with  all  the 
historical  phenomena,  that  one  cannot  but  hold  it  honour- 
able both  to  Origen's  head  and  heart,  that  he  has  owned 
his  early  proficiency  in  the  Ammonian  philosophy,  under  this, 
its  illustrious  master. 

Leonides,  the  father  of  Origen,  is  said  to  have  suffered 
martyrdom,  and  to  have  been  encouraged  thereto  by 
Origen  (who  was  the  oldest  of  his  seven  children)  when 
not  quite  seventeen  years  of  age:  a  fact,  which  if  it  were 
credible,  would  bear  a  very  equivocal  reading. 

In  the  sincerity  of  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
Monkery — from  which  Christianity  is  unquestionably  de- 
rived "  he  was  guilty  of  that  rash  act  so  well  known," 
which  he  held  to  be  his  duty  as  inculcated  by  Christ  in 
the  celebrated  Matt.  xix.  12.  His  conduct  at  least  demon- 
strates the  existence  of  the  text,  as  of  high  and  unques- 
tionable antiquity  in  his  time,  and  the  sincere  prostration 
of  his  mind  to  its  constraining  authority. 

This  argument,  adroitly  handled,  would  constitute  one 
of  the  very  strongest  evidences  of  Christianity  :  and 
played  off  with  the  blustering  airs  of  sanctification  and 
parade  of  learning,  which  are  generally  called  in  to  the 
aid  of  canonical  sophistication,  might  much  puzzle  the 
Sciolist  in  these  studies.  The  difficulty,  however,  is  in- 
stantly dissipated  upon  collation  of  the  character  of  the 
text  itself,  with  the  facts  of  history  which  this  Diegesis 
supplies. 

1.  The  text  itself  is  unworthy  of  the  character  of 
rational  and  moral  inculcation  which  Christians  generally 
challenge  for  the  discourses  of  their  divine  master. 


330         FATHERS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY. 

2.  It  goes  not  to  the  extent  of  an  institution  of  the 
practice  there  spoken  of. 

3.  The  practice  is  allowed,  approved,  and  sanctioned, 
but  not  positively  enjoined  or  commanded. 

4.  The  text  implies  the  historical  fact  of  such  a  practice 
having  existed  long  anterior  to  the  time  of  the  si>eak€r;— 
and 

5.  Necessarily  supposes  the  antiquity  and  notoriety  of 
its  prevalence. — This  it  is, 

"  But  he  said  unto  them,  Ml  men  cannot  receive  this  doctrine, 
save  they  to  whom  it  is  given.  For  there  are  some  eunuch  which 
tvere  so  born  from  their  mother''s  ivornb,  and  there  are  some 
eunuchs  which  were  made  eunuchs  of  men,  and  there  be  eunuchs 
which  have  made  themselves  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven'' b 
sake.     He  that  is  able  to  receive  it,  let  him  receive  it.'''' 

The  Jewish  law,  which  strictly  forbad  the  making  any 
sort  of  cuttings  in  the  flesh,  and  allowed  not  an  eunuch 
so  much  as  to  enter  into  the  congregation  of  the  Lord,* 
stands  in  resistless  demonstration  of  the  fact,  that  these 
eunuchs  were  aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel.  We 
have  to  look  then  (where  we  shall  assuredly  find  them,) 
to  the  monks  of  Egypt,  who  practised  these  excisions,  and 
whose  sacred  books  were  none  other  than  the  original, 
or  first  written  tale,  from  which  our  three  first  gospels  are 
derived,!  which  had  contained  the  whole  gospel  story  and 
system  of  doctrine  as  imported  from  India,  had  been 
kept  in  the  secret  archives  of  their  monastery,  and  held 
binding  on  the  consciences  of  all  the  friars  of  their  monk- 
ish society,  long  anterior  to  the  times  of  Augustus,  in 
whose  reign,  or  soon  after,  we  may  suppose  the  three 
evangelists  to  have  been  appointed  by  the  Alexandrian 
College  to  give  authenticated  versions  of  them  into  the 
Greek  language,  for  the  purpose  of  the  more  extensive 
propagation  of  monkery. 

It  has  been  said  of  Origen,  that  he  had  written  six 
thousand  volumes.  St.  Jerom  asserts  of  him,  that  he  had 
written  more  than  any  man  could  read.  And  it  is  from 
his  unwearied  pains  in  reading  and  writing  that  some 
think  he  had  the  name  Jldamantius — under  which,  not 
without  occasioning  considerable  perplexity,  his  writings 
are  sometimes  quoted.  Lardner  thus  sums  up  his  cha- 
racter; "  He  had  a  capacious  mind,  and  a  large  compass 
of  knowledge,  and  throughout  his  whole  life  was  a  man 

*  Dcut.  xxiii.  1. 

+  Such  was  the  opinion  of  Eusebins  himself. 


FATHERS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.         331 

of  unwearied  application  in  studying  and  composing 
works  of  various  sorts.  He  had  the  happiness  of  uniting 
different  accomplishments,  being  at  once  the  greatest 
preacher  and  the  most  learned  and  voluminous  writer  of 
the  age:  nor  is  it  easy  to  say  which  is  most  admirable, 
his  learning  or  his  virtue.  In  a  word,  it  must  be  owned, 
that  Origen,  though  not  perfect,  nor  infallible,  was 
a  bright  light  in  the  church  of  Christ,  and  one  of  those 
rare  personages  that  have  done  honour  to  the  human  na- 
ture."* 

He  is  undoubtedly  the  most  distinguished  personage  in 
the  whole  drama  of  the  Christian  evidences,  nor  can  any 
man  who  believes  Christianity  to  be  a  blessing  to  man- 
kind, have  the  least  hesitation  in  pronouncing  him  to  have 
been  one  of  the  wisest,  greatest,  and  best  of  men,  that 
was  ever  engaged  in  promoting  it. 

Nothing  is  so  difficult  as  to  determine  the  limits  of  the 
part  this  truly  great  man  has  borne  in  the  absolute  consti- 
Mion  of  the  Christian  religion.  He  is  the  first  author 
who  has  given  us  a  distinct  catalogue  of  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament,  the  first  in  whose  writings  such  a  name 
occurs  as  expressive  of  such  a  collection  of  writings:  nor 
would  any  writings  that  he  had  seen  fit  to  reject  have  ever 
conquered  their  way  into  canonical  authority:  nor  any 
that  he  has  once  admitted,  have  been  rejected.  If  there 
be  consistency,  harmony,  or  any  where  in  those  writings 
an  observance  of  historical  congruity, — the  sacred  text 
owes  its  felicity  to  the  criticisms  and  emendations  of  Ori- 
gen, who  pruned  excrescences,  exscinded  the  more  glaring 
contradictions,  inserted  whole  verses  of  his  own  pure  in- 
genuity and  conjecture,  and  diligently  laboured,  by  claim- 
ing for  the  whole  a  mystical  and  allegorical  sense,  to  rescue 
it  from  the  contempt  of  the  wise,  and  to  moderate  its  ex- 
citement on  the  minds  of  the  vulgar. 

His  writings  contain  the  finest  and  adroitest  specimens 
of  under-throwing,  that  could  be  well  adduced;  they  are  a 
sort  of  looking  glass,  in  which  either  wise  or  simple  will 
be  sure  to  see  the  face  he  likes  best.  The  all-adoring  and 
all-digesting  believer,  may  read  his  six  thousand  volumes 
and  never  be  startled  out  of  the  brown  study  of  Christian 
orthodoxy, — the  reader  who  hath  once  learned  to  snuff  his 
candle  as  he  reads,  will  ever  and  anon  perceive  that  Ori- 
gen never  played  the  fool,  but  once. 

*  Lardner,  to],  i.  p.  528. 


332  FATHERS    OF    THE    THIRD    CENTURY. 

His  character  needs  only  the  apology  which  human 
nature  claims  for  every  man — his  situation.  He  was  in 
every  sense  of  the  word  a  master  spirit — a  civihzed  being 
among  the  wild  men  of  the  woods.  There  is  no  occasion, 
however,  to  act  on  Dr.  Lardner's  avowed  principle  of 
concealing  facts  to  promote  piety.*  It  is  not  to  be 
denied,  that  this  wisest,  greatest,  best  that  ever  bore  the 
Christian  name,  relapsed  at  last  into  Paganism — publicly 
denied  his  Lord  and  Master,  Jesus  Christ,  and  did  sacri- 
fice unto  idols.  I  find  that  Eusebius  as  well  as  Lardner, 
has  omitted  all  mention  of  this  grand  and  glorious  fact ; 
and  but  for  the  avowed  intention  of  Dr.  Lardner  to  pro- 
mote true  piety,  I  should  have  considered  his  not  finding 
it  in  Eusebius,  an  excuse  for  the  omission.  It  is  to  be 
found,  however,  in  Origen's  own  writings,  and  is  confirmed 
in  his  life,  in  the  Greek  of  Suidas.  His  dolorous  lamen- 
tation and  repentance  after  this  outrageous  apostacy, 
presents  us  with  the  most  authentic,  and  at  the  same 
time  most  demonstrative  view  of  the  interior  character  of 
the  most  primitive  Christianity ;  and  must  satisfy  those 
who  dream  of  a  state  of  Christianity  at  any  time  before 
the  Protestant  Reformation,  when  what  are  called  the 
principles  of  the  Reformation  were  the  principles  of 
Christianity,  how  grossly  their  Protestant  teachers  have 
deceived  them. 

The  dolorous  Lamentation  of  Origen. 

"  In  bitter  affliction  and  grief  of  mind,  I  address 
myself  unto  them  which  hereafter  shall  read  me  thus 
confoundedly.  But  how  can  I  speak  with  tongue  tied, 
with  throat  dammed  up,  and  lips  that  refuse  their  office. 
I  fall  to  the  ground  on  my  bare  knees  and  make  this  my 
humble  prayer  and  supplication  unto  all  the  saints,  that 
they  will  help  me,  silly  wretch  that  I  am,  who  by  reason 
of  the  superfluity  of  my  sin,  dare  not  look  up  unto  God. 
O  ye  saints  of  the  blessed  God!  with  watery  eyes  and  sod- 
den cheeks  soaked  in  grief  and  pain,  I  beseech  you  to  fall 
down  before  the  mercy-seat  of  God,  for  me  miserable 
sinner.  Woe  is  me,  because  of  the  sorrow  of  my  heart! 
Woe  is  me,  for  the  affliction  of  my  soul.  Woe  is  me,  0 
my  mother,  that  ever  thou  broughtest  me  forth,  an  heir  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  but  now  become  an  inheritor  of  the 
kingdom  of  the  Devil;  a  perfect  man,  yea  a  priest,  yet 

*  Lardner,  vol.  i.  p.  552. 


FATHERS    OF    THE    THIRD    CENTURY.  333 

found  wallowing'  in  impiety;  a  man  beautified  with  hon- 
our and  dignity,  yet  in  the  end  blemished  with  ignominy 
and  shame;  a  burning  light,  yet  forthwith  darkened;  a 
running  fountain,  yet  bye  and  bye  dried  up;  0  who  will 
give  streams  of  tears  unto  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  bewail 
my  sorrowful  plight:  0  my  lost  priesthood!  0  my  dis- 
honoured ministry;  0  all  you,  my  friends,  tender  my 
case!*  Pity  me,  0  all  ye,  my  friends,  in  that  I  have 
now  trodden  under  foot  the  seal  and  cognizance  of  my 
profession,  and  joined  league  with  the  devil!  Pity  me, 
O  ye,  my  friends,  in  that  I  am  rejected  and  cast  away 
from  the  face  of  God.  It  is  for  my  lewd  life  that  I  am 
thus  polluted,  and  noted  with  open  shame.  Alas,  how 
am  I  fallen.  Alas,  how  am  I  thus  come  to  nought! 
There  is  no  sorrow  comparable  unto  my  sorrow;  there 
is  no  affliction  that  exceedeth  my  affliction;  there  is  no 
lamentation  more  lamentable  than  mine;  neither  is  there 
any  sin  greater  than  my  sin;  and  there  is  no  salve  for 
me.  Alas!  0  father  Abraham!  intreat  for  me,  that  I  be 
not  cut  off  from  thy  coasts.  Rid  me,  0  Lord,  from  the 
roaring  lion!  The  whole  assembly  of  saints  doth  make 
intercession  unto  thee  for  me.  The  whole  quire  of  an- 
gels do  entreat  thee  for  me-  Let  down  upon  me  thy 
Holy  Spirit,  that  with  his  fiery  countenance  he  may  put 
to  flight  the  crooked  fiends  of  the  devil!  Let  me  be  re- 
ceived again  into  the  joy  of  my  God,  through  the  prayers 
and  intercessions  of  the  saints,  through  the  earnest  pe- 
titions of  the  Church  which  sorroweth  over  me,  and 
humbleth  herself  unto  Jesus  Christ;  to  whom,  with  the 
Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  all  glory  and  honour,  for 
ever  and  ever.     Amen."     So  far  Origen. 

I  have  abridged  this  intolerably  tedious  farrago,  without 
breaking  a  single  sentence,  or  changing  or  supplying  one 
word  not  authorized  by  the  original  text. 

The  most  distinguished  of  all  the  works  of  Origen  is 
his  celebrated  answer  to  Celsus,  contained  in  eight  books, 
and  from  which,  it  is  a  very  usual  though  an  unfair  thing 
to  assume  that  we  have  what  ouofht  to  be  considered  as 


*  So  absolutely  primitive  is  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  even  in  the  most  ex- 
'Ceptionable  of  ita  practices,  that  we  have  here,  the  very  form  of  words  in  which, 
to  this  day  the  benefit  of  7}iasses  and  prayers  for  the  souls  in  purgatory,  is  formally 
requested,  as  I  have  seen  them  stuck  up  on  the  walls  of  their  chapels,  in  Ireland: 
and  in  honest  truth  it  must  be  infinitely  more  reasonable  to  pray  to  the  saints,  who 
being  like  ourselves,  may  be  wheedled  to  our  purposes,  than  to  God,  who  is  nec- 
essarily immutable,  and  consequently  inexorable. 


334         FATHERS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY. 

the  sentiments  of  Celsus.  The  exceeding  intolerance  of 
Christians  against  the  writings  of  the  enemies  of  their 
faith;  the  fact  of  the  destruction  of  such  as  they  did 
write;  and  the  substitution  of  such  as  Christians  them- 
selves wrote  and  fathered  upon  them,  in  order  to  make 
them  seem  to  have  made  none  other  than  such  objections 
as  were  either  trifling  and  weak  in  themselves,  or  could 
be  most  triumphantly  answered,  should  stand  in  bar  of 
all  reckoning  upon  Origen's  report  of  Celsus's  objections. 
The  historical  value  of  this  important  document  is  pre- 
cisely this:  it  is  a  certificate  to  us  of  what  the  evidences 
of  Christianity  were  at  the  time  of  its  date,  in  reference 
to  such  objections  as  Christians  themselves  were  willing  to 
admit  that  it  was  liable  to;  that  is,  it  instructs  us  what 
Christians  thought  that  their  adversaries  could  not  but 
think  of  them.  I  subjoin  a  continuous  specimen  of  this 
celebrated  piece,  freely  availingmyself  of  Bellamy's  trans- 
lation; though  Origen's  Greek  is  in  general  so  lucid  and 
easy,  that  hardly  any  translator  could  mislead  us. 

origen's  answer  to  celsus. 

Chapter!. — "  Then  Celsus  goes  on,  and  asserts  that  Ju- 
daism, with  which  the  Christian  religion  has  a  very  close 
connexion,  has  all  along  been  a  barbarous  sect,  though  he 
prudently  forbears  to  reproach  the  Christian  religion,  as  if 
it  were  of  a  mean  and  unpolished  original." 

Chapter  2. — "  Now  let  us  see  how  Celsus  reproaches  the 
practical  part  of  our  religion,  as  containing  nothing  but 
what  we  have  in  common  with  the  heathens,  nothing  that 
is  new  or  truly  great.  To  this  I  answer,  that  they  who 
bring  down  the  just  judgments  of  God  upon  them,  by  theii* 
notorious  crimes,  would  never  suffer  by  the  hand  of  divine 
and  inflexible  justice,  if  all  mankind  had  not  some  tolera- 
ble notions  of  moral  good  and  evil." 

Chapters  3  and  4. — ^  curious  but  idle  allegory  upon  the  story 
of  the  golden  calf 

Chapter  5.—"  Then  Celsus,  speaking  of  idolatry,  does 
himself  advance  an  argument  that  tends  to  justify  and 
commend  our  practice.  Therefore  endeavouring  to  show 
in  the  sequel  of  his  discourse,  that  our  notion  of  image- 
worship  was  not  a  discovery  that  was  owing  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, but  that  we  have  it  in  common  with  the  heathens; 
he  quotes  a  passage  in  Heraclitus  to  this  eftect. 

"  To  this  I  answer,  that  since  I  have  already  granted 
that  some  common  notions  of  good  and  evil  are  originally 


FATHERS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.         335 

implanted  in  tlie  minds  of  men,  we  need  not  wonder  that 
Heraclitus  and  others,  wliether  Greeks  or  barbarians,  have 
publicly  acknowledged  to  the  world,  that  they  held  the 
very  same  notions  which  we  maintain." 

Chapter  6. — "  Then  Celsus  says,  that  all  the  power 
which  the  Christians  had  was  owing  to  the  names  of  cer- 
tain demons,  and  their  invocation  of  them.  But  this  is  a 
most  notorious  calumny.  For  the  power  which  the  Chris- 
tians had  was  not  in  the  least  owing  to  enchantments,  but 
to  their  pronouncing  the  name  I.  E.  S.  U.  S.,  and  making 
mention  of  some  remarkable  occurrences  of  his  life.  Nay, 
the  name  of  I.  E.  S.  U.  S.  has  such  power  over  demons, 
that  sometimes  it  has  proved  effectual,  though  pronounced 
by  very  wicked  persons."* 

Chapter  7. — Celsus  being  represented  to  have  objected 
that  Christ  was  a  ^evj  wicked  man,  and  wrought  his 
miracles  by  the  power  of  magic,  Origen  answers: 

"  Though  we  should  grant  that  'tis  difficult  for  us  to 
determine  precisely  by  what  power  our  Saviour  wrought 
his  miracles,  yet  'tis  very  plain  that  the  Christians  made 
use  of  no  enchantments,  unless,  indeed,  the  name 
I.  E.  S.  U.  S.,  and  some  passages  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
were  a  kind  of  sacred  spelV 

Chapter  8. — In  this  Chapter,  Origen  admits  that  there 
were  some  Arcana  Imperii,  or  state  secrets,  which  are 
not  fit  to  be  communicated  to  the  vulgar;  and  justifies  the 
fact,  from  the  secret  doctrines  of  the  Pagan  philosophy. 

Chapter  9. — Presents  nothing  bearing  on  Christian  evi- 
dence. 

*  The  prevalence  of  this  persuasion  is  strongly  implied  in  the  very  fair  bargain 
proposed  by  Simon  Magus,  who,  "  lohen  he  saw  that  through  laying  on  of 
the  Apostles'  hands  the  Holy  Ghost  was  given,  he  offered  them  money,  say- 
ing. Give  me  also  this  power,  that  on  whomsoever  I  lay  hands,  he  may  re- 
ceive the  Holy  Ghost.'"  (Acts  viii.  19.)  iVnd  in  the  fatal  experiment  of  the  sev- 
en sons  of  Sceva,  who  attempted  to  deal  with  the  Devil,  vsrithout  having  served 
a  regular  apprenticeship — Jesus  I  know,  and  Paul  I  know,  said  the  Devil; 
"  but  who  are  youV"  (Acts  xix.  15.)  It  is  directly  asserted  by  i\ie  formal  pro- 
clamation of  St.  Peter,  "Be  it  known  unto  you  all,  that  by  the  naine  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  A''azareth,  doth  this  man  stand  here  before  you  whole;  for  there 
is  none  other  name  under  heaven  in  which  we  ought  to  be  saved, — sv  to  Sei 
^uac  au.>9^r,iat.  It  is  a  more  than  curious  quadrature  with  this,  and  many  other 
passages  to  the  like  eflect,  that  the  name  Jesus,  and  even  the  name  Jesus  Christ 
of  J\razareth  is  worshipped  in  the  Catholic  church,  distinctly  from  all  relation  to 
any  pei-son  whatever,  as  having  an  independent  charm  and  virtue  in  the  mystical 
combination  of  the  letters  themselves,  like  the  Abracadabra  of  the  Egyptians, 
the  Shem  Hemophoresh  of  the  Jews,  and  the  Open  szssame  of  the  Arabi- 
ans. God  forbid  it  should  be  thought  to  have  had  no  more  than  this  sort  of  talis- 
manic  virtue,  in  its  eternal  repetitions  at  the  close  of  our  Protestant  prayers, 
"  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,"  which  ought  always  to  be  chanted! 


336         FATHERS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY. 

Chapter  10. — "  And  Celsus  continues  his  discourse,  and 
advises  us  to  embrace  no  opinions  but  under  the  conduct 
of  impartial  reason,  on  account  of  the  many  and  gross 
errors  to  which  the  contraiy  practice  will  shamefully  and 
unavoidably  expose  us.  And  he  compares  those  persons 
who  take  up  any  notions  without  due  examination,  to  the 
designing  priests  of  Mithras,  Bacchus,  Cybele,  Hecate,  or 
any  other  mock  deity  of  the  heathens.  For  as  these  im- 
postors, having  once  got  the  ascendant  over  the  common 
people,  who  were  grossly  ignorant,  could  turn  and  wind 
these  silly  cattle,  as  their  interest  or  fancy  might  direct,* 
so  he  says,  the  very  same  thing  was  known  to  be  the  com- 
mon practice  of  the  Christians." 

In  answer  to  this  really  formidable  objection,  instead  of 
producing  distinct  historical  testimony  to  demonstrate  that 
the  history  of  Jesus  Christ  rested  on  rational  and  convinc- 
ing evidence,  and  could  not  therefore  be  fairly  put  on  a 
level  with  the  fabulous  legends  of  those  mock  deities,  that 
never  had  any  existence  but  in  the  conceit  of  their  deluded 
worshippers,  Origen  himself  defends  and  justifies  the  self- 
same principle  of  implicit  faith,  from  which  all  those  fabu- 
lous legends  and  mock  deities  derived  their  authority,  and 
proceeds — 

"A  vast  number  of  persons  who  have  left  those  horrid 
debaucheries  in  which  they  formerly  wallowed,  and  have 
professed  to  embrace  the  Christian  religion,  shall  receive 
a  bright  and  massy  crown  when  this  frail  and  short  life  is 
ended,  though  they  don't  stand  to  examine  the  grounds  on 
which  their  faith  is  built,  nor  defer  their  conversion  till  they 
have  a  fair  opportunity  and  capacity  to  apply  themselves 
to  rational  and  learned  studies.  And  since  our  adversaries 
are  continually  making  such  a  stir  about  our  taking  things 
on  trust,!  I  answer,  that  we,  who  see  plainly  and  have 
found  the  vast  advantage  that  the  common  people  do  man- 
ifestly and  frequently  reap  thereby — (who  make  up  by  far 
the  greater  number) — I  say,  we  (the  Christian  clergy),  who 
are  so  well  advised  of  these  things,  do  professedly  teach 
men  to  believe  without  a  severe  examination." 

*  Surely  this  objection  of  Celsus,  as  allowed  to  have  been  made  by  him,  by  his 
adversary,  is  a  proof  that  he  was  a  wise  and  good  man,  and  never  did  or  would 
have  shut  his  mind  against  evidence,  or  have  hardened  his  heart  against  conviction. 
It  is  utterly  impossible  that  such  a  man  should  have  rejected  Christianity,  had  it  in 
his  days  possessed  historical  and  rational  evidences. 

t  So!  so! — So!  so!  And  this,  it  seems,  was  the  grievance  from  the  first.  The 
heathens  wanted  rational  evidence  for  Christianity;  but  Christians  could  not  pro- 
duce it! 


FATHERS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.         337 

Chapter  33. — "  I  have  this  to  say  further  to  the  Greeks, 
who  won't  believe  that  our  Saviour  was  born  of  a  Virgin  ; 
that  the  Creator  of  the  world,  if  lie  pleases  can  make  every 
anfmal  bring  forth  its  young  in  the  same  wonderful  man- 
ner.* As  for  instance,  the  vultures  which  propagate  their 
kind  in  this  uncommon  way,  as  the  best  writers  of  natural 
history  do  acquaint  us.  What  absurdity  is  there  then  in 
supposing,  that  the  all-wise  God,  designing  to  bless  man- 
kind with  an  extraordinary  and  truly  divine  teacher, 
should  so  order  matters,  that  our  blessed  Saviour  should 
not  be  born  in  the  ordinary  way  of  human  generation." 

The  work  of  Celsus,  which  Origen  thus  refutes,  appears 
to  have  been  entitled  the  true  word,  or  the  True 
Logos,  written  at  least  one  hundred  years  before  the  time 
of  Origen. 

"  Celsus  and  Porphyry,"  says  Chrysostom,  "  are  suffi- 
cient witnesses  to  the  antiquity  of  the  scriptures  ;  for  I 
presume  that  they  did  not  oppose  writings  which  had  been 
published  since  their  own  times."!  This  writer,  however, 
chooses  to  forget  that  it  is  not  true  that  we  are  in  posses- 
sion of  the  evidence  of  Celsus  and  Porphyry.  Nor  would 
evidence  of  the  antiquity  of  the  scriptures  afford  any  pre- 
sumption that  they  were  written  by  the  persons  to  whom 
they  are  ascribed  ;  while  the  presumption  remains,  that 
they  are  actually  too  ancient,  and  were,  as  to  their  general 
story  and  contents,  in  being  before  the  life-time  of  those 
persons. 

Dr.  Lardner  pronounces  this  answer  of  Origen  to  Celsus 
"  an  excellent  performance,  greatly  esteemed  and  celebrat- 

*  From  this  it  should  seem,  that  the  holy  Virgin  laid  an  egg  ;  and  that  our  bles- 
sed Saviour  should  rather  be  said  to  have  been  hatched  than  born.  This  sense  is 
further  supported  by  the  express  assurance  of  scripture,  that  the  male  agent  in  his 
generation,  was,  "  in  bodily  shape  like  a  dove." — ^Mark  i.  10,  John  i,  32.  Read, 
also,  with  awful  reverence,  that  angelic  testunony  "  The  Holy  Ghost  shall  come 
upon  thee,  and  the  power  of  the  Highest  shall — emaxtaati — thee  ;  therefore, 
also,  that  holy  thing  (observe,  it  is  not  said  child  or  babe,  but  that  holy  thing,) 
which  shall  be  born  of  thee,  shall  be  called  the  So7i  of  God." — Luke  i.  35. 
Milton  describes  this  as  the  peculiar  function  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
"  Dove-like,  sat  brooding  on  the  vast  abyss, 
.  And  made  it  pregnant." — Paradise  Lost,  Book  i. 

And  as  it  might  seem  in  relation  to  this  adorable  mystery,  the  prophet  Isaiah  asks, 
•'  Who  shall  declare  his  generation  ?"  Ch.  liii.  v.  8.  I  abhor  no  impiety  more  af- 
fectionately than  that  of  our  Unitarian  divines,  the  most  inconsistent,  the  most  egre- 
gious, the  most  absurd  of  all  sophists,  who  hesitate  not  at  the  most  audacious  blas- 
phemies upon  the  mystical  incarnation,  and  persist  in  representing  Christ  as  a  rnere 
man,  though  unable  to  produce  so  much  as  one  single  proof,  either  scriptural  or 
hJBtorical,  that  any  such  mere  man  ever  existed  at  all. 
,    t  Lardner,  vol.  iv.  p.  114. 


338  FATHERS    OF    THE    THIRD    CENTURY. 

ed,  not  only  by  Eusebius  and  Jerom,  but  likewise  by  many 
judicious  men  of  late  times,  particularly  by  Dupin,  who 
says,  that  it  is  polite,  just,  and  methodical  ;  not  only  the 
best  work  of  Orig-en,  but  the  completest  and  best  written 
apology  for  the  Christian  religion,  which  the  ancients  have 
left  us." 


ST.  GREGORY,    ThaumcUurgvSj  A.  D.  243. 

Bishop  of  Moccesarea. 

I  cannot  present  the  reader  with  fairer  grounds  of 
judging  of  the  whole  worth  and  value  of  the  evidences  of 
the  Christian  religion,  than  by  laying  before  him  what 
those  evidences  will  require  him  to  believe  of  the  charac- 
ters and  actions  of  the  most  remarkable  personages  con- 
cerned in  its  establishment  and  propagation.  This  I  do, 
in  none  other  than  the  lines  and  colours,  the  showing  and 
acknowledgments,  their  own  representations  in  their  own 
words,  not  of  the  humbler  and  feebler  advocates  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  of  such  as  Christians  themselves  with  justice 
and  reason  boast  of,  as  the  best,  discreetest  and  ablest 
defenders  their  cause  ever  had.  If  Dr.  Lardner  could 
not  have  given  a  just  and  faithful  representation  of  what 
the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion  really  were,  or  has 
not  done  so  ;  who  on  earth  shall  be  proposed  as  worthier 
of  all  acceptation  ?  If  on  his  representation  it  shall  appear 
that  Christianity  rests  ultimately  and  strictly  on  miracu- 
lous evidence,  and  on  the  probability  of  a  continuous  se- 
ries of  divine  interpositions  and  interferences  of  the  al- 
mighty power  of  God,  not  merely  at  first  to  promulge,  but 
afterwards  to  propagate  and  continue  this  supernatural 
intimation  of  his  will  to  man ;  what  right  or  reason  have 
our  Unitarian  divines  to  give  themselves  insolent  airs  of 
philosophical  assurance,  or  to  affect  to  treat  those  who 
reject  miraculous  evidence,  as  if  they  could  not  do  so 
without  rejecting  historical  fact  and  rational  probability  at 
the  same  time  ? 

St.  Gregory,  Bishop  of  Neocsesarea  in  Pontus,  was  one 
of  Origen's  most  noted  scholars.  It  is  fit  we  should  now 
have  a  more  particular  history  of  this  renowned  con- 
vert and  bishop,  of  the  best  times  or  near  them,  who 
is  usually  called  Thaumaturgus,    or  the  Wonder-worker, 

*  Dupin,  Bibl.  Origines,  p.  142. 


J 


FATHERS    OP    THE    THIRD    CENTURY.  339 

for  the  many  and  great  miracles  wrought  by  him.* '  Gre- 
gory's parents  were  Gentiles. — "  As  soon  as  Origen  saw 
Gregory  (when  a  youth),  and  his  brother  Athenodorus,  he 
neglected  no  means  to  inspire  them  with  a  love  of  philo- 
sophy, as  a  foundation  of  true  religion  and  piety. f  Of 
Origen  they  learned  logic,  physics,  geometry,  astronomy, 
ethics.  He  encoviraged  them  in  reading  of  all  sorts  of 
ancient  authors,  poets,  and  philosophers,  whether  Greeks 
or  barbarians,  restraining  them  from  none  but  such  as  de- 
nied a  Deity  or  a  Providence,  from  whom  no  possible 
advantage  could  be  obtained."  From  Gregory  of  Nyssa, 
in  Cappadocia,  who  flourished  about  a  hundred  years 
after  this  Gregory  Thaumatiu'gus,  Dr.  Lardner  transcribes 
the  most  material  things  of  his  life.  Nyssen  says,  that 
Gregory  studied  secular  learning  for  some  time  at  Jllex- 
andria,  where  there  was  a  great  resort  of  youth  from  all 
parts  for  the  sake  of  philosophy  and  medicine.  Our  young 
Gregory  was  even  then  distinguished  by  the  sobriety  and 
discretion  which  appeared  in  his  conduct.  "  A  lewd  wo- 
man having  been  employed  by  some  idle  people  to  dis- 
grace him  by  indirect  but  inipudent  insinuations,  his 
reputation  was  vindicated  in  a  remarkable  manner,  for 
the  woman  was  immediately  seized  with  such  horrible 
fits,  as  demonstrated  them  to  be  a  judgment  of  heaven  : 
nor  was  she  relieved  from  the  demon  that  had  taken  pos- 
session of  her,  till  Gregory  had  interceded  with  God  for 
her,  and  obtained  the  pardon  of  her  fault."  This  miracle 
occurred  while  Gregory  was  yet  a  heathen — "  his  family 
however,  was  rich  and  noble."  His  ordination  to  the 
Christian  ministry,  it  seems,  took  place  even  before  his 
conversion  to  Christianity.  "  Phedimus,  Bishop  of  Amasea, 
knowing  the  worth  of  this  young  man,  and  being  grieved 
that  a  person  of  such  accorapHshments  should  live  useless 
in  the  world,  was  desirous  to  consecrate  him  to  God  and 
his  church  ;"  but  "  Gregory  was  shy  of  such  a  charge,  and 
industriously  concealed  himself  from  the  bishop,  whose 

*  Lardner,  vol.  i.  p.  243.  I  punctiliously  give  the  words  of  Lardner,  that  the 
reader  may  see  with  what  a  grace  this  rational  Socinian  grapples  with  miracles 
which  he  cannot  believe,  and  dare  not  deny. 

t  This  philosophy,  which  we  meet  with  at  every  turn,  as  always  constituting 
the  basis  of  the  ChrL'stian  religion  ;  this  Alexandria,  always  the  centre  and  nur- 
sery of  this  philosophy  ;  these  congresses  of  lazy  pedants  in  universities,  where 
young  men  are  to  be  trained,  and  broken  in  to  the  business  of  becoming  impos- 
tors themselves  in  their  turn,  are  matters,  at  the  least  infinitely  suspectable.  Hon- 
esty never  needed  them  !  Compare  p.  314  and  319,  in  this  Diegesis.  Justin, 
Melito  &c.  all  professors  in  like  manner  of  this  Eclectic  philosophy. 


340  FATHERS    OF    THE    THIRD    CENTURY. 

desig-n'he  was  aware  of.  At  length,  Phedimus,  tired  of 
his  fruitless  attempts  to  meet  Gregory,  and  being  blessed 
with  the  gift  of  foreknowledge,  consecrated  him  to  God, 
though  bodily  absent,  assigning  him  also  a  city  which  till 
that  time  was  so  addicted  to  idolatry,  that  in  it,  and  in 
all  the  country  round  about,  there  were  not  above  seven- 
teen believers.  Gregory  was  then  at  the  distance  of  three 
days  journey.  He  only  desired  of  him  by  whom  he  had 
been  ordained,  a  short  time  to  prepare  himself  for  the 
office,  nor  had  he  courage  to  undertake  the  work  of 
preaching,  till  he  had  been  informed  of  the  truth  by  reve- 
lation. And  while  he  was  engaged  in  deep  meditation, 
he  had  a  magnificent  and  awful  vision  in  his  chamber." 
The  Virgin  Mary,  and  St.  John  the  beloved  disciple,  ap- 
peared to  him,  "  encompassed  also  by  a  bright  light  too 
strong  for  him  to  look  upon  directly.  He  heard  these 
persons  discourse  together  about  the  doctrines  in  which 
he  desired  to  be  informed,  and  he  perceived  who  they 
were,  for  they  called  each  other  by  name  ;  and  the  Virgin 
desired  that  John  the  Evangelist  would  teach  that  young 
man  the  Mystery  of  Piety,  and  he  replied,  that  he  was  not 
unwilling  to  do  what  was  desired  by  the  mother  of  our 
Lord.  John  then  gave  the  instruction  he  wanted,  which, 
when  they  had  disappeared,  Gregory  wrote  down.  Ac- 
cording to  that  faith  he  always  preached  ;  and  left  it  with 
his  church  as  an  invaluable  treasure,  by  which  means  his 
people  from  that  time  to- this,  were  preserved  from  all  he- 
retical pravity." 

Then  follows  the  stupendous  miracle,  which  I  find  quot- 
ed in  Middleton's  Free  Inquiry,  which  I  here  abridge  as 
much  as  possible  : — 

The  holy  Gregory,  in  travelling  to  take  possession  of 
his  bishopric,  was  overtaken  by  a  storm  and  benighted, 
so  that  for  shelter  he  was  obliged  to  spend  the  night  in 
one  of  the  heathen  temples  ;  in  consequence  of  which, 
when  the  priest  came  to  perform  their  idolatrous  rites  the 
next  morning,  "  he  was  answered  by  the  demon,  that  he 
could  no  more  appear  in  that  place,  because  of  him  who 
had  lodged  there  the  foregoing  night.  The  priest  greatly 
enraged  at  this,  pursued  Gregory,  and  threatened  to 
inform  the  magistrates  against  him  ;  but  Gregory  told  the 
priest,  that"  God  had  given  him  such  divine  power,  that 
"  he  could  expel  demons  from  any  place  and  re-admit  them 
as  he  saw  fit  :  and  as  a  demonstration  of  such  power,  he 
took  a  slip  of  paper  and  wrote  upon  it  the  words  '  Gregory 


FATHERS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.         341 

to  Satan  :  Enter ."  This  paper  being  laid  upon  the  altar, 
and  the  accustomed  Paganish  rites  performed,  the  demon 
appeared  as  usual  ;  which  so  convinced  the  Pagan  priest 
of  the  superior  power  possessed  by  Christians,  that  he 
left  the  service  of  Satan,  and  became  a  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  was  afterwards  one  of  Gregory's  deacons. — ■ 
But  some  doubts  still  remaining,  Gregory  wrought  another 
evident  miracle — at  his  command  a  large  heavy  stone  lying 
before  them,  moved  as  if  it  had  life,  and  settled  itself  in 
the  place  Gregory  directed." 

Again,  there  were  two  brothers  at  variance  Math  each 
other,  whom  Gregory  could  by  no  means  reconcile.  A. 
certain  lake  was  the  matter  in  dispute.  When  they  were 
about  to  decide  the  cause  by  arms,  Gregory  went  to  the 
lake  the  night  before,  and  at  his  prayers  it  was  dried  up  ; 
so  that  there  was  no  lake  left  for  them  to  contend  for. 

Again  : — "  The  river  Sycus  often  overflowing,  to  the 
great  damage  of  the  neighbouring  country,  at  the  desire  of 
the  people  who  suffered  by  its  inundations,  Gregory  pre- 
scribed its  proper  limits,  which  it  never  passed  afterwards." 

"  After  his  return  to  Neocaesarea,  Gregory  cured  a  young 
man  possessed  of  a  demon  ;  and  a  great  many  people  were 
delivered  from  demons,  and  released  of  their  diseases,  by 
only  having  a  piece  of  linen  brought  to  them,  which  had 
been  breathed  upon  by  him." 

After  these,  and  several  other  marvellous  relations  of 
the  same  sort,  and  some  trifling  objections  started  against 
them,  it  is  of  importance  that  the  reader  should  be  aware, 
that  it  is  none  other  than  the  judicious  and  learned  Dr. 
Lardner  hhnself^  who  is  driven  to  the  distress  of  having  to 
say — 

"I  do  not  intend  to  deny  that  Gregory  wrought  mira- 
cles ;  for  I  suppose  he  did,  as  I  shall  acknowledge  more 
particularly  by  and  bye.  Nevertheless,  there  is  no  harm 
in  making  these  remarks,  if  they  are  just,  or  in  showing 
that  Nyssen's  relations  are  defective,  and  want  some 
tokens  of  credibility  with  which  we  should  have  been 
mightily  pleased." 

Gregory's  works  are,  a  panegyrical  oration  in  praise  of 
Origen,  pronounced  in  239,  still  extant,  and  unquestion- 
ably his.  Dupin  says  that  it  is  very  eloquent,  and  that  it 
may  be  reckoned  one  of  the  finest  pieces  of  rhetoric  in  all 
antiquity — a  paraphrase  of  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  and 
that  seljf-same  creed  or  copy  of  the  faith  which  we  may 

30* 


u42  FATHERS    OF    THE    THIRD    CENTURY. 

believe  he  copied  immediately  from  the  dictation  of  St. 
John. 

"  His  history,  as  delivered  by  authors  of  the  fourth  and 
following-  centuries,  particularly  by  Nyssen,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  has  in  it  somewhat  of  fiction  ;  but,"  adds  Dr.  Lard- 
ner — (yes,  they  are  the  very  words  of  Lardner  himself) — 
"  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  made  but  he  was  very 
successful  in  making  converts  to  Christianity  in  the  coun- 
try of  Pontus,  about  the  middle  of  the  third  century  ;  and 
that  beside  his  natural  and  acquired  abilities,  he  was 
favoured  with  extraordinary  gifts  of  the  spirit,  and  wrought 
miracles  of  surprising  pou-er.  The  plain  and  express  testi- 
monies of  Basil  and  others,  at  no  great  distance  of  time 
and  place  from  Gregory,  must  be  reckoned  sufficient 
grounds  of  credit  with  regard  to  these  things.  The  extras 
ordinary  gifts  of  the  spirit  had  not  then  entirely  ceased  ;  but 
Gregory  was  favoured  with  such  gifts  greatly  beyond  the 
common  measure  of  other  Christians  or  bishops  at  that 
season.  Yet,  as  St.  Jerom  intimates,  it  is  likely  that  he 
was  more  famous  for  his  signs  and  wonders  than  his  wri- 
tings."* 

With  respect  to  Gregory's  appointing  anniversary  festi- 
vals and  solemnities  in  honour  of  the  martyrs  of  his  dio- 
cese, (as  I  have  already  given  the  important  passage  from 
Mosheim,  in  the  chapter  of  Admissions,!)  Dr.  Lardner 
contends  against  it,  that  he  is  "  unwilling  to  take  this 
particular  upon  the  credit  of  Nyssen  ;  because  this  childish 
method  of  making  converts  appears  unworthy  of  so  wise 
and  good  a  man  as  Gregory.  Nor  is  it  likely  that  those 
festivals  should  be  instituted  by  one  who  had  the  gift  of 
miracles,  and  therefore  a  much  better  way  of  bringing  men 
to  religion  and  virtue."  See  all  these  passages,  purporting 
to  be  from  Dr.  Lardner's  immortal  work  on  the  Credibility 
of  the  Gospel  History,  in  his  first  volume,  under  the  article 
St.  Gregory  of  Neocaesarea.  I  have  selected  this  Life  of 
Pope  Gregory  the  Wonder-worker,  not  so  much  to  show 
the  picture  as  the  painter  ;  and  to  set  before  my  readers 
a  demonstration  of  the  important  and  consequential  fact, 
that  the  ablest  and  most  rational  advocate  of  Christianity, 
is,  in  its  vindication,  driven  on  the  necessity  of  using  a 
sort  of  language  which,  on  any  other  theme  than  that,  he 

*  His  writings  are  not  to  be  disparaged,  since  they  afford  the  clearest  evidence 
of  the  genuineness  of  his  mhacles,  by  proving  that  he  was  no  conjuror. 
t  See  DiEGEsis,  p.  48. 


FATHERS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY.         343 

wonld  have  been  ashamed  of.  We  see  the  most  eminent 
of  all  writers  on  the  Christian  evidences,  driven  to  the 
God-help-iis  of  subscribing  to  a  belief  in  the  most  ridiculous 
and  contemptible  miracles,  rather  than  he  will  accept, 
even  from  his  own  authorities,  the  clear  and  natural  solu- 
tion of  the  difficulty — even  that  he  who  was  ordained  a 
Christian  bishop,  while  yet  he  continued  a  Pagan,  should 
have  owed  his  success  in  converting  others  to  the  same 
sUde-tlic-butcher  system  which  had  been  so  successfully  prac- 
ticed on  himself;  that  is,  letting  them  continue  Pagans  all 
the  while,  only  calling  them  Christians. 

From  the  short  notice  which  Socrates  has  of  this  Fath- 
er, it  should  seem  that  the  Holy  Ghost  was  somewhat  pre- 
mature in  his  gifts  to  Gregory,  since  he  got  possession  of 
tJie  power  of  working  miracles  before  he  became  a  convert 
to  the  Christian  faith  :  "  being  yet  a  layman,  he  wrought 
many  miracles,  he  cured  the  sick,  chased  away  devils  by 
his  epistles,  and  converted  the  Gentiles  and  Ethnics  unto 
the  faith,  not  only  with  words,  but  by  deeds  of  a  far  greater 
force."* 


ST.   CYPRIAN,    A.    D.    248. 

Bishop  of  Carthage. 

Thascius  Coecilius  Cyprianus  was  an  African,  who  was 
converted  from  Paganism  to  Christianity,  in  the  year  246, 
and  suffered  martyrdom  in  the  year  258.  So  that  the 
gi'eatest  part  of  his  life  was  spent  in  heathenism.  Cyprian 
had  a  good  estate,  which  he  sold  and  gave  to  the  poor 
immediately  upon  his  conversion.  His  advancement  to 
the  highest  offices  of  the  church  was  strikingly  rapid  ; 
he  was  made  presbyter  the  year  after  his  conversion,  and 
bishop  of  Carthage,  the  year  after  that.  And  let  it  not 
seem  invidious  to  state,  what  may  be  a  characteristic  truth, 
in  the  words  of  Dr.  Lardner  himself,  ''  The  estate  which 
Cyprian  ha>i  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  was  by  some 
favourable  providence  restored  to  him  again."  He  was 
bishop  of  a  most  flourishing  church,  the  metropolis  of  a 
province,  and  neither  in  fame  nor  fortune  a  loser  by  his 
conversion. 

There  can  be  no  just  grounds  to  disparage  the  renown 
of  his  martyrdom :    which  though  unquestionably   dis- 

*  Socrates  Scholast.  lib.  4,  c.  22. 


344         FATHERS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY. 

graceful  to  the  g-overnment  under  which  it  happened,  was 
not  attended  with  any  of  those  aggravating  circumstances 
of  childish  cruelty,  which  throw  an  air  of  suspicion  over 
almost  all  the  other  narratives  of  martyrdom,  that  have 
come  down  to  us.  Cyprian  had  rendered  himself  obnox- 
ious to  the  government  under  which  he  had  long  enjoy- 
ed his  episcopal  dignity  in  peace  and  safety  ;*  and  it  is 
impossible  not  to  see  from  the  intolerant  turbulence  of  his 
character,  his  restless  ambition,  and  his  inordinate  claims 
of  more  than  human  authority  ;  that  more  than  human 
patience  would  have  been  required  on  the  part  of  any 
government  on  earth,  to  have  brooked  the  eternal  clash- 
ings  of  the  civil  administration  with  his  assumed  superior 
authority  over  the  minds  of  the  subjects  of  the  empire. 
He  had  been  twice  banished,  and  subsequently  recalled, 
and  reinstated  in  his  possessions  and  dignities,  but  again 
and  again  persisting  in  holding  councils  and  assemblies, 
and  enacting  decrees,  in  defiance  and  actual  solicitation  of 
martyrdom,  he  was  judicially  sentenced  to  be  beheaded, 
upon  which,  he  exclaimed,  God  be  thanked^  and  suffered 
accordingly,  on  the  14th  of  September,  in  the  year  258. 
As  his  own  historians  tell  the  tale,  his  execution  was  at- 
tended with  no  additional  circumstance  of  cruelty,  anger, 
or  indignation,  but  occurred  amidst  the  sympathy  of  his 
Christian  friends,  and  the  admiration  and  regret  even  of 
those  whom  a  sense  of  public  duty  had  enforced  to  con- 
demn him.  "  It  is  needless,"  says  St.  Jerom,  "  to  give  a 
catalogue  of  his  works,  they  are  brighter  than  the  swn." 
St.  Austin  calls  him  a  blessed  martyr,  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  he  has  as  good  a  claim,  as  any  other 
tyrant  who  ever  expiated  his  tyranny  in  the  same  way, 
to  that  title. 

*  "  The  constitution  of  every  particular  church  in  those  times  was  a  well-tem- 
pered monarchy.  The  bishop  was  the  monarch,  and  the  presbytery  was  his  sen- 
ate."— Principles  of  the  Cyprianic  age,  by  JoJui  Sage,  a  Scottish  bishop, 
1695,  p.  32.  "  Cyprian  carried  his  spiritual  authority  to  such  a  pitch,  as  to  claim 
the  right  of  putting  his  rebellious  and  unruly  deacon  to  death." — Ibid.  p.  33. 
Surely  here  was  cause  enough  to  induce  any  government,  to  call  such  a  traitor  to 
some  sort  of  reckoning  ! 


FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.         345 

CHAPTER  XLIII. 

THE  FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY. 
CONSTANTINE,  A.  D.  306. 

The  character  with  whom,  next  to  Origen,  it  most  con- 
cerns the  Christian  inquirer  to  be  acquainted,  is  the 
emperor  Constantine  the  Great,  under  whose  reign  and 
auspices,  Christianity  became  the  established  religion, 
and  but  for  whom,  as  far  as  human  probabilities  can  be 
calculated,  it  never  would  have  come  down  to  us. 

Constantine,  called  the  Great,  son  of  Flavins  Vale- 
rius Constantius,  surnamed  Chlorus,  and  Helena,  was 
born  on  the  27th  of  February,  in  the  year  of  Christ  272, 
or  as  some  think,  in  273,  or  as  others,  in  274,  was  con- 
verted to  the  Christian  religion  on  the  night  of  the  26th 
of  October,  a.  d.  312,  became  sole  emperor  both  of  the 
East  and  West,  about  the  year  324,  reigned  about  thirty- 
one  years  from  the  death  of  his  father,  Constantius  ;  and 
died  on  Whitsunday,  May  22d,  348,*  Felicianus  and 
Tatian  being  consuls,  the  second  year  of  the  two  hundred 
and  seventy-eighth  Olympiad,  in  the  sixty-sixth  year  of 
his  age.f 

The  bearings  on  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion 
demand  from  us — that  we  should  inform  ourselves  of  the 
character  of  this  great  hero  of  the  cause, 

1 .  As  drawn  by  Christian  historians  and  divines, 

2.  As  appearing  in  the  incontrovertible  evidence  of  ad- 
mitted facts, 

3.  The  ostensible  motives  of  his  conversion, 

4.  The  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion  as  they  ap- 
peared to  him. 

I.  "  I  do,  by  no  means,"  says  Dr.  Lardner,  "  think  that 
Constantine  was  a  man  of  cruel  disposition. — {p.  342.) 
Though  there  may  have  been  some  transactions  in  his 
reign  which  cannot  be  easily  justified,  and  others  that 
must  be  condemned  :  yet  we  are  not  to  consider  Constan- 
tine as  a  cruel  prince  or  a  bad  man."| 

*  Lardner's  Credibility,  vol.  ii.  p.  327. 
t  Socrates  Scholasticus,  bib.  i.  c.  26. 

t  See  my  14th  letter  from  Oakham  published  in  the  1st.  and  2d.  volnmes  of 
the  Lion. 


346        FATHERS  OP  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY. 

"  Constantine  was  remarkably  tall,  of  a  comely  and 
majestic  presence,  and  great  bodily  strength.*  it  may 
be  concluded,  from  the  whole  tenor  of  his  life,  that  he 
was  a  person  of  no  mean  capacity.  Indeed,  his  mind  was 
equal  to  his  fortune,  great  as  it  was,  his  chastity,!  togeth- 
er with  his  valour,  justice,  and  prudence,  is  commended 
by  a  heathen  panegyrist  ;  his  many  acts  of  bounty  to  the 
poor,  and  his  just  edicts,  are  arguments  of  a  merciful  dis- 
position and  a  love  of  justice.  He  was,  moreover,  a 
sincere  believer  of  the  Christian  religion,  of  which  he, 
first  of  all  the  Roman  emperors,  made  an  open  profes- 
sion. 

"In  a  word,  the  conversion  of  Constantine  to  Christian- 
ity was  a  favour  of  divine  providence,  and  of  great  advan- 
tage to  the  Christians,  and  his  reign  may  be  reckoned  a 
blessing  to  the  Roman  empire  on  the  whole."  Thus  far, 
Dr.  Lardner.:]: 

I  find  no  directly  drawn  character  of  Constantine  in  the 
Ecclesiastical  History  of  Socrates  Scholasticus,  except 
that  he  tells  us,  in  general  terms,  that  "  Constantine  the 
emperor,  fixing  his  whole  mind  upon  such  things  as  set 
forth  the  glory  of  God,  behaved  himself  in  all  things  as 
becometh  a  Christian,  erecting  churches  from  the  ground, 
and  adorning  them  with  goodly  and  gorgeous  consecrated 
ornaments  :  moreover,  shutting  up  the  temples  of  the 
Heathens,  and  publishing  unto  the  world  (in  way  of  de- 
rision) the  gay  images  glittering  within  them."§  In  his 
decrees  and  letters  as  preserved  by  this  historian,  Con- 
stantine entitles  himself  "  the  puissant,  the  mighty,  and 
noble  emperor,"  and  in  the  synodical  epistle  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Nice,  he  is  called  "  the  most  virtuous  emperor,  the 
most  godly  emperor,  Constantine. "|| 

The  mouldering  pages  of  the  historian  Evagrius,  who 
had  been  one  of  the  emperor's  lieutenants,  are  enlivened 
with  a  truly  evangelical  invective  against  the  Ethnic  Zos- 
imus,  in  which  no  better  names  than,  ''-  0  wicked  spirit  ! 
thou  fiend  of  hell  !  0  thou  lewd  varlet !"  &c.  are  found, 
for  his  having  dared  to  defame  the  godly  and  noble  empe- 
ror, Constantine.!! 

But  Eusebius — who  would  never  lie  nor  falsify, 
except  to   promote   the   glory   of   God, — the   conscientious 

*  "Whether  Helena  was  the  lawful  wife  of  Constantius  Chlorus,  or  oiJy  his  con- 
cubine, is  a  disputable  point." — Lardner,  vol.  ii.  p.  322. 

+  What  has  that  to  do  with  it  ?  t  Vol.  i.  p.  345. 

§  Socrates  Sch.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  2.  II  Socrates,  lib.  i.  c.  6. 

IT  Evagrius,  lib.  iii.  c.  41. 


FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.        347 

Eusebius  Pamphilus,  who  has  written  his  life,  seems  to 
know  no  bounds  of  exaggeration  in  his  praise.  "lam 
amazed"  (says  this  veracious  bisliop,  on  whose  fideUty 
all  our  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical  antiquity  must  ulti- 
mately, depend)  "  I  am  amazed,  when  I  contemplate  such 
singular  piety  and  goodness.  Moreover,  when  I  look  up 
to  heaven,  and  in  my  mind  behold  his  blessed  soul  living 
in  God's  presence,  and  there  invested  (croxvned)  with  a 
blessed  and  unfading  wreath  of  immortality  ;  considering 
this,  I  am  oppressed  with  silent  amazement,  and  my 
weakness  makes  me  dumb,  resigning  his  due  encomium  to 
Almighty  God,  who  alone  can  give  to  Constantine  the 
praise  he  merits." 

"  Constantine  alone,  of  all  the  Roman  emperors,  was 
beloved  of  God,  and  hath  left  us  the  idea  of  his  most  pious 
and  religious  life  as  an  inimitable  example  for  other  men 
to  follow,  at  a  humble  distance."* 

"  Constantine  was  the  first  of  all  the  emperors  who 
was  regenerated  by  the  new  birth  of  baptism,  and  signed 
with  the  sign  of  the  cross  ;  and  being  thus  regenerated, 
his  mind  was  so  illuminated,  and  by  the  raptures  of 
faith  so  transported,  that  he  admired  in  himself  the  won- 
derful work  of  God  :  and  when  the  centurions  and  cap- 
tains admitted  to  his  presence,  did  bewail  and  mourn  for 
his  approaching  death,  because  they  should  loge  so  good 
and  gracious  a  prince,  he  answered  them,  '  that  he  now 
only  began  to  live,  and  that  he  now  only  began  to  be 
sensible  of  happiness,  and  therefore,  he  now  only  desir- 
ed to  hasten,  rather  than  to  slack  or  stay  his  passage  to 
God.'t 

"  For  he  alone  of  all  the  Roman  emperors  did,  with 
most  religious  zeal,  honour  and  worship  God.  He  alone, 
with  great  liberty  of  speech,  did  profess  the  gospel  of  Je- 
sus Christ.  He  alone,  did  honour  his  church  more  than 
all  the  rest.  He  alone,  abolished  the  wicked  adoration  of 
idols  ;  and,  therefore,  he  alone,  both  in  his  life  and  after 
his  death,  hath  been  crowned  with  such  honours  as  no  one 
hath  obtained,  neither  among  the  Grecians  nor  Barbari- 
ans, nor  in  former  times,  among  the  Romans.  Since  no 
age  hath  produced  any  thing  that  might  be  parallelled  or 
compared  to  Constantine.":]:     So  much  for  his  praise  ! 

*The  learned  reader  will  find  I  take  some  liberties  with  the  text,  r\ever  depart- 
ing, however,  from  its  sense — but,  "  an  iniinitable  example  for  all  men  to  fol- 
low," which  is  the  literality,  is  Irish  rather  than  English  panegyric. 

t  Life  of  Coastantine,  lib.  iv.  c.  63.  $  Ibid.  fib.  iv.  c.  75. 


348        FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY. 

II.  "  Murder,  though  it  hath  no  tongue,  unll  speak  with  most 
miraculous  organ.''^ 
The  adulations  of  interested  sycophants,  and  the 
applause  of  priests  and  bishops,  will  not  erase  the  more 
convincing-  evidence  of  those  stubborn  things,  facts,  that 
will  not  be  suppressed,  and  cannot  lie.  Even  Lardner, 
who  omits  entirely  the  circumstances  of  aggravation,  ac- 
knowledges the  deeds,  which  give  a  very  different  com- 
plexion to  Constantine's  character,  from  that,  which  the 
honour  of  Christianity  requires  that  it  should  wear.  The 
hireling  voice  of  priestcraft  v/ould  extol  him  to  the  skies. 
Nor  ought  we  in  judging  of  the  worth  of  a  churchman's 
panegyric,  to  forget  that  even  the  cautious  and  ingenuous 
Lardner,  who  has,  without  evidence  of  a  single  act  of 
wrong  against  him,  branded  the  amiable  and  matchlessly 
virtuous  Julian,  as  a  persecutor,  has  not  one  ill  word  to 
spare  for  the  Christian  Constantine,  who  drowned  his 
unoffending  wife,  Fausta,  in  a  bath  of  boiling  water,  be- 
headed his  eldest  son,  Crispus,  in  the  very  year  in  which 
he  presided  in  the  Council  of  Nice,  murdered  the  two  hus- 
bands of  his  sisters  Constantia,  and  Anastasia,  murdered 
his  own  father-in-law,  Maximian  Herculius,  murdered  his 
own  nephew,  being  his  sister  Constantia's  son,  a  boy  only 
twelve  years  old,  and  murdered  a  few  others  !*  which 
actions,  Lardner,  with  truly  Christian  moderation,  tells 
us,  "  seem  to  cast  a  reflection  upon  him.''''  Among  those  few 
others,  never  be  it  forgotten,  was  Sopater,  the  Pagan 
priest,  who  fell  a  victim  and  a  martyr  to  the  sincerity  of 
his  attachment  to  Paganism,  and  to  the  honesty  of  his  re- 
fusing the  consolations  of  heathenism  to  the  conscience  of 
the  royal  murderer. 

"  The  death  of  Crispus,  (says  Dr.  Lardner)  is  altogether 
without  any  good  excuse  ;  so  likewise  is  the  death  of  the 
young  Licinianus,  who  could  not  then  be  more  than  a 
little  above  eleven  years  of  age,  and  appears  not  to  have 
been  charged  with  any  fault,  and  can  hardly  be  suspected 
of  any. "t     Then  why  may  we   not  consider  Constantine 

*  His  slaughter  bill,  methodically  arranged,  runs  thus  : — 

Maximian  -  -  His  wife's  father  -  -  a.  d.  310 
Bassianus  -  -  -  His  sister  Anastasia's  husband  -  314 
Licinianiio         -         -         His  nephew,  by  Constantuia    -         -    319 

Fausta         -        -        -     His  wife 320 

Sopater    -         -        -        His  former  friend     -        -        -         -   321 
Licinius         -         -         .  His  sister  Constantia's  husband      -        325 
Crispus     -        -         -        His  own  son     -----  326 
Religio  peperit  Bcelerosa  atque  impia  facta. — Lucret.  lib.  1,  v.  84. 

t  Lardner,  vol.  2,  p.  342. 


FATHERS  OP  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.        349 

to  have  been  either  a  cruel  prince  or  a  bad  man  ?  "  Here 
then,  (continues  Lardner,  whose  work  is  written  expressly 
to  promote  true  piety  and  virtue,)  here  lies  the  general  ex- 
cuse, or  alleviation  of  these  faults,  {peccadilloes,  he  means.) 
Prosperity  is  a  dangerous  state,  full  of  temptation,  and 
puts  men  oft' their  guard,  and  all  these  executions  happen- 
ed very  near  to  one  another,  when  Constantine  was  come 
as  it  were  to  the  top  of  his  fortune,  and  was  in  the  great- 
est prosperity."*  Reader  !  imagine  thou  seest  his  noble 
son  imploring  a  father's  mercy — but  in  vain.  Imagine 
thou  seest  his  innocent  wife  supplicating  for  rather  any 
other  death  at  his  hands  than  that  most  horrible  one  of 
the  boiling  bath — but  in  vain.  Think  that  thou  seest  the 
poor  unoftending  child  upon  his  knees,  lifting  his  innocent 
hands  to  beg  his  life,  and  his  most  holy  uncle  will  not 
regard  him.  Think  that  thou  hearest  the  distracted 
shrieks  of  the  fond  doating  mother,  the  beautiful  Constan- 
tia,  with  dishevelled  hair  and  heart-broken  moans,  en- 
treating her  brother  to  spare  her  son — but  in  vain.  Not 
a  wife's  anguish,  nor  a  sister's  tears,  nor  nearest  of  kin- 
dred, nor  matchless  woman's  tenderness,  nor  guileless 
youth's  innocence,  could  soften  the  heart  of  this  evangeli- 
cal cut-throat,  this  godly  and  holy  child-killer.  Then, 
contemplate  the  coin  which  Eusebius  tells  us  was  struck 
to  perpetuate  his  memory,  "  whereon  was  engraven  the 
effigies  of  this  blessed  man,  with  a  scarf  bound  about  his 
head,  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  other  sitting  and  driving 
a  chariot,  and  a  hand  reached  down  from  heaven  to  receive 
and  take  him  up.f" 

When  one  finds  such  a  writer  as  Lardner,  (to  say 
nothing  of  the  egregious  falsificatidns  of  Eusebius)  thus 
endeavouring  to  whitewash  Constantine,  because  he  was 
a  Christian  emperor,  and  to  affix  on  those  paragons  of 
human  virtue,  Julian  and  Marcus  Antonius,  the  guilt  of 
persecution,  merely  because  they  were  Pagan  emperors, 
not  only  without  evidence  against  them,  but  in  conflict 
with  the  most  irrefragible  proofs  that  they  were  as  clear 
.from  that  guilt,  as  the  sun's  disk  from  darkness  ;  it  is  not 
illiberal  to  find  the  only  excuse  we  can  for  these  historians, 
to  blame  their  pnnciples  rather  than  themselves,  and  to 
conclude  that  there  is  something  in  the  strength  and 
intensity  of  their  religious  affection,  which  suspends  in 

*  Lardner,  vol.  2,  p.  343. 

tEusebius'a  Life  of  Constantine,  book  4,  chap.  73,  p.  76,  fol. 

31 


350  FATHERS    OF    THE    FOURTH  CENTURY. 

them  the  faculty  of  perceiving  or  communicating  truths,  so 
long  as  that  affection  is  in  its  paroxysm."* 

It  is  however  highly  honourable  to  Lardner,  that  he  has 
the  generosity  to  speak  in  terms  of  less  qualified  censure 
of  Constantine's  intolerance,  and  to  admit  that  the  two 
prevailing  evils  of  his  reign,  were  avarice  and  hypocrisy. f 
"  The  laws  of  Constantine  against  the  heathens,"  he 
acknowledges,  "  are  not  to  be  justified.  How  should  Con- 
stantine have  a  right  to  prohibit  all  his  subjects  from  sac- 
rificing and  worshipping  at  the  temples  ?  Would  he  have 
liked  this  treatment,  if  some  other  prince  had  become  a 
Christian  at  that  time,  and  he  still  remained  a  heathen  .'' 
What  reason  had  he  to  think  that  all  men  received  light 
and  conviction  when  he  did  ?  And  if  they  were  not  con- 
vinced, how  could  he  expect  that  they  should  act  as  he 
did. "I 

Monsieur  Le  Clerc  justly  observes,  that  "  they  that 
continued  heathens  were  no  doubt  extremely  shocked  at 
the  manner  in  which  the  statues  of  their  gods  were  treated, 
and  could  not  consider  the  Christians  as  men  of  modera- 
tion ;  for  in  short,  those  statues  were  as  dear  to  them,  as 
any  thing  the  most  sacred  could  be  to  the  Christians. § 

In  the  form  and  wording  of  several  of  Constantine's 
edicts,  we  have  specimens  of  that  conjunction  of  holiness 
and  blood-thirstiness,  religion  and  murder,  which  pour- 
trays  his  character  with  a  precision  and  fidelity  that  needs 
no  further  illustration. 

1.  "  Constantine  the  puissant,  the  mighty  and  noble  emperor^  unto 
the  bishops,  phstors,  and  people  wheresoever. 

"  Moreover  we  thought  good,  that  if  there  can  be  found 
extant  any  work  or  book  compiled  by  Arius,  the  same 
should  be  burned  to  ashes,  so  that  not  only  his  damnable 
doctrine  may  thereby  be  wholly  rooted  out,  but  also  that 
no  relic  thereof  may  remain  unto  posterity.  This  also  we 
straightly  command  and  charge,  that  if  any  man  be  found 
to  hide  or  conceal  any  book  made  by  Arius,  and  not 
immediately  bring  forth  the  said  book,  and  deliver  it  up 
to  be  burned,  that  the  said  oflender  for  so  doing  shall  die 
the  death.    For  as  soon  as  he  is  taken,  our  pleasure  is, 

*  See  this  deduction  illustrated  in  a  succession  of  the  Author's  letters  from  Oak- 
ham, in  "  The  Lion,"  vol.  1. 

\  Lardner's  Credibility,  vol.  2,  p.  345.  t  Ibid.  p.  844 

§  Bibl.  Univ.  t.  15,  p.  54. 


FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.        351 

that  his  head  be  stricken  off  from  his  shoulders.     God  keep 
you  in  his  tuition."* 

Constantine's  speech  in  the  council  concerning  peace  and  concord. 
2.  "  Having-  by  God's  assistance,  gotten  the  victory  over 
mine  enemies,  I  entreat  you  therefore,  beloved  ministers 
of  God,  and  servants  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
to  cut  off  the  heads  of  this  hydra  of  heresy,  for  so  shall  ye 
please  both  God  and  me."f 

III.    MOTIVES    OF    constantine's     CONVERSION. 

^s  say  his  friends. 
"  Constantine  the  Emperor,  being  certified  of  the  tyran- 
nous government  of  Maxentius,  devised  with  himself 
which  way  possibly  he  might  rid  the  Romans  from  under 
this  grievous  yoke  of  servitude,  and  despatch  the  tyrant 
out  of  Ufe.  Deliberating  thus  with  himself,  he  forecasted 
also  what  God,  he  were  best  to  call  upon  for  aid,  to  wage 
battle  with  the  adversary.  He  remembered  how  that 
Diocletian  who  wholly  dedicated  himself  unto  the  service 
of  the  heathenish  Gods,  prevailed  nothing  thereby  ;  also 
he  persuaded  himself  for  certain,  that  his  father  Con- 
stantius,  who  renounced  the  idolatry  of  the  Gentiles,  led  a 
more  fortunate  life  ::{:  musing  thus  doubtfully  with  himself, 
and  taking  his  journey  with  his  soldiers,  a  certain  vision 
appeared  unto  him,  as  it  was  strange  to  behold,  so  indeed 
incredible  to  be  spoken  of.  About  noon,  the  day  some- 
what declining,  he  saw  in  the  sky,  a  pillar  of  light,  in  the 
form  of  a  cross,  whereon  was  engraved  the  inscription, 
'  In  this  overcome.''  This  vision  so  amazed  the  emperor, 
that  he,  mistrusting  his  own  sight,  demanded  of  them  that 
were  present,  whether  they  perceived  the  vision,  which 
when  all  with  one  consent  had  affirmed,  the  wavering 
mind  of  the  Emperor,  was  settled  with  that  divine  and 
wonderful  sight.  The  night  following,  Jesus  Christ  him- 
self appeared  to  him,  in  his  sleep,  saying — '  Frame  to  thy- 
self the  form  of  a  cross  after  the  example  of  the  sign  which  appear- 
ed unto  thee,  and  bear  the  same  against  thy  enemies  as  aft  banner, 
or  token  of  victory.'*  ^^^ 

*In  Socrates  Scholasticns,  lib.  1,  c.  6,  fol.  p.  227. 

lEuseb.  Vita  Const,  lib.  3,  c.  12. 

i  Compare  this  with  the  apology  of  Melito  ;  and  the  result  Is,  a  demonstration 
that  good  or  ill  luck  was  all  that  tamed  the  scale  between  the  claims  of  Christianity 
and  of  Paganism. — Diegesis,  p.  320. 

§  Socrates  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  l,c.  1.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  these  words  of 
Christ  have  not  been  received  into  the  canon  of  the  New  Testament,  as  it  is  cer- 
tain there  are  none  therem  contained,  of  higher  authority. 


352  FATHERS    OF   THE    FOURTH   CENTURY. 

But  let  US  heap  the  account  of  "  that  lewd  varlet," 
"  that  wicked  spirit  and  fiend  of  hell,"*  as  Socrates  calls 
him,  the  Ethnic  Zosimus,  who  dared  to  revile  Constantine, 
and  rail  at  Christians.  These  fiends  of  hell  make  none 
the  worse  historians,  but  always  contrive  to  give  an  air 
of  rational  probability  to  their  infernal  falsehoods,  which 
divine  truth  (being  written  solely  to  exercise  our  faith) 
could  never  pretend  to — "  This  lewd  varlet  goeth  about 
to  defame  the  godly  and  noble  emperor  Constantine,  for 
he  saith,  that  he  slew  his  son  Crispus  very  lamentably ; 
that  he  despatched  his  wife  Fausta,  by  shutting  her  up  in 
a  boiling  bath  ;  that  when  he  would  have  had  his  priest 
to  purge  him  by  sacrifice,  of  these  horrible  murthers,  and 
could  not  have  his  purpose,  (for  they  had  answered  plain- 
ly, it  lay  not  in  their  power  to  cleanse  him),  he  light- 
ed at  last  upon  an  Egyptian  who  came  out  of  Iberia,  and 
being  persuaded  by  him  that  the  Christian  faith  was  of 
force  to  wipe  away  every  sin,  were  it  never  so  heinous, 
he  embraced  willingly  all  whatever  the  Egyptian  told 
him."t 

Lardner  says  this  is  a  false  and  absurd  story  ;  and  to 
make  it  appear  to  be  so,  he  renders  the  text  of  Zosimus, 
without  supplying  it  as  usual  at  the  bottom  of  his  page, 
as  if  it  had  ran,  that  "  Constantine  being  conscious  to  him- 
self of  those  bad  actions,  and  also  of  the  breach  of  oaths,! 
and  being  told  by  the  priests  of  his  old  religion,  that  there 
was  no  kind  of  purgation  sufficient  to  expiate  such  enor- 
mities, he  began  to  hearken  to  a  Spaniard,  named  ^gyp- 
tius,  then  at  Court,  who  assured  him  that  the  Christian 
doctrine  contained  a  promise  of  the  pardon  of  all  manner 
of  sin." 

I  suspect  Dr.  Lardner's  copy  of  Zosimus  of  a  menda- 
cious substitution  of  the  words  which  he  renders  "a  Spa- 
niard named  JEgyptius,  then  at  Court,^^  instead  of  those  ac- 
knowledged in  the  independent  and  hostile  quotation  of 
Socrates,  "  that  "  he  met  an  Egyptian  coming  out  of  Iberia^ 
in  order  to  keep  in  the  back  ground,  as  much  as  possible, 

*  Socrates,  lib.  3,  c.  40,  41.  When  we  hear  language  of  this  sort,  vve  may  be 
sure  that  somebody  has  been  telling  the  truth.  Consult  that  holy  blackguard, 
the  Reverend  Dr.  J.  P.  S.  and  his  Rejoinder,  for  the  character  of  the  Author. 
Billmgsgate  surrenders  the  honours  of  the  fish-market,  to  the  transcendent  ruffian- 
ism of  the  college. 

t  Ibid.  lib.  3,  c.  40. — See  also  the  original  text  of  Zosimus  to  this  effect,  given 
in  my  "  Syntagma,"  p.  112. 

t  The  holy  emperor  had  Iwund  himself  by  the  most  solemn  oaths  to  protect  Li- 
cinius,  but  slew  liim  notwithstanding.  He  had  the  example  of  the  man  after  God'« 
own  heart  to  justify  this  peccadillo,  1  Kmgs,  ii.  8,  9. 


FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.        353 

the  startling-  denouement  of  historical  fact,  that  Christianity- 
is  really  not  of  Jewish,  but  of  Egyptian  derivation.*  As 
for  its  absurdity,  they  should  not  throw  stones  who  live  in 
houses  of  g-lass. 

Sozomen  has  a  whole  chapter  on  purpose  to  confute  such 
accounts  of  Constantine's  conversion  ;  in  which  he  admits 
(which  one  would  think  were  admission  enoug-h,)  that  the 
emperor  made  some  such  application  to  a  Pag-an  priest  of 
the  name  of  Sopater,  who  had  been  his  faithful  friend  ; 
but  that  Sopater  refased  to  administer  spiritual  consola- 
tion, asserting  that  the  purity  of  the  gods  admitted  of  no 
compromise  with  crimes  like  his.  Whereupon,  Constantine 
applied  to  the  bishops  of  Christianity,  "  who  promised  him 
that  by  repentance  and  baptism  they  could  cleanse  him 
from  all  sin  ;"t  taking  into  the  reckoning,  we  must  suppose, 
the  sin  (if  a  sin  they  held  it  to  be)  of  murdering  poor  So- 
pater, the  Pagan  priest  ;  whom,  upon  his  conversion  to 
the  Christian  faith,  Constantine  took  care  to  have  put  to 
death. 

It  is  from  the  arguments  which  his  best  friends  and  most 
zealous  advocates  advance  in  his  favour,  and  the  pitiful 
chicane  Avith  which  they  feebly  attempt  to  conflict  with 
the  facts  which  his  enemies,  or  rather  the  impartial  docu- 
ments of  history  allege  against  him,  that  we  gather  a  true 
knowledge  of  the  character  of  the  first  Christian  emperor. 

Thus  the  learned  Christian  historian  Pagi,  with  equal 
humanity  and  orthodoxy,  affects  to  repel  every  accusation 
that  the  tongue  of  slander  might  object  against  this  holy 
emperor  : — "  As  for  those  few  murders,  if  Eusebius  had 
thought  it  worth  his  while  to  refer  to  them,  he  would  per- 
haps, with  Baronius  himself  have  said,  that  the  young 
Licinius  (his  infant  nephew),  although  the  fact  might  not 
generally  have  been  known,  had  most  likely  been  an  ac- 
complice in  the  treason  of  his  father.  That  as  to  the 
murder  of  his  son,  the  emperor  is  rather  to  be  considered 
as  unfortunate  than  as  criminal.  And  with  respect  to  his 
putting  his  wife  to  death,  he  ought  to  be  pronounced 
rather  a  just  and  righteous  judge.  As  for  his  numerous 
friends,  whom  Eutropius  informs  us  he  put  to  death  one 
after  another,  we  are  bound  to  believe  that  they  most  of 

*  Compare  with  Chap.  29,  The  Sign  of  the  Cross,  in  this  Diegesis,  p.  198. 

\Tavra  avveTiiarautiog  tavros,  xai  TiQoGsT/e  oqxwv  xaTafQortjitig,  TTQoatjei 
Toi?  iiQevoi  xuSaQata  airov, — Zositnus.  ^5>;i.  n'ovvxct  ds  rov  paOiXta  tni  rif 
anctyoQtvasi,  TreQiTvysiv  Emaxonoig,  oi  ^traiota  xai  ^amia^ari  vntaxovto. 
Jlaaiis  avjov  afiaqncts  xa&aiQeiv. — Sozomen. 


354        FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY. 

them  deserved  it,  as  they  were  found  out  to  have  abused 
the  emperor's  too  great  credulity,  for  the  g-ratification  of 
their  own  inordinate  wickedness,  and  insatiable  avarice  : 
and  sucli  no  doubt  was  that  Sopater  the  philosopher, 
who  was  at  last  put  to  death  upon  the  accusation  of  Ad- 
labius,  and  that  by  the  righteous  dispensation  of  God,  for 
his  having  attempted  to  alienate  the  mind  of  Constantino 
from  the  true  religion,"*  Dr.  Lardner  quotes  this  impor- 
tant passage  in  his  notes,  for  the  benefit  of  the  learned 
reader,  but  gives  no  rendering  into  EngUsh  of  the  most 
important  clause  in  it  :  which  I  have  here  supplied. 

We  have  horrors  on  horrors  in  detail  of  martyrdoms  in 
the  cause  of  Christianity — here  was  a  martyr  in  the  cause 
of  Paganism,  of  whom,  as  of  millions  whom  Christians 
massacred,  it  was  considered  a  sufficiently  fair  account 
either  with  Lardner  to  think  their  cases  utterly  unworthy 
of  notice,  or  with  Pagi  to  assume,  that  they  had  their 
throats  cut  and  their  property  turned  over  to  the  faithful, 
by  the  just  dispensations  of  God  upon  them  for  not  being 
of  the  emperor's  religion.  One's  heart  smarts  at  the 
unfeeling  exultation  of  Eusebius  over  the  cold-blooded 
massacres  of  Pagans,  who,  he  tells  us,  "  as  they  formerly 
reposed  an  insolent  vain  hope  in  their  false  gods,  so  now, 
upon  being  executed  and  put  to  death  according  to  their 
desert,  they  truly  understood  how  great  and  admirable  the 
God  of  Constantino  was."t  The  war  against  Constantino 
he  throughout  assumes  to  bo,  and  expressly  calls  "  The 
toar  against  Go(Z."| 

*  De  credibus  autem  si  rationem  m  paiticulari  reddere  voluisset,  dixisset  forsitan 
cum  ipso  Baronio,  Licinium  juniorem  ex  sorore  Constantia  natuni,  etsi  causa  vulgo 
ignoraretur,  verosimiliter  tamen  complicem  patii  suo  fuisse  :  In  Crispo  filio,  infeli- 
cem  iriagis  quam  reum  :  In  Fausta  conjuge,  etiam  justum  judicem  appellandum  : 
Numerosos  amicos  quos  successive  inteifectos  scribit  Eutropius,  lib.  10,  credendum, 
plerosque  id  commeiitos,  quod  nimia  principis  credulitate  tandem  deprehenderentur 
abusi  ob  suam  exuberantem  malitiam  et  insatiabilem  cupiditatem.  Quaiis  procul- 
dubio  fuit  Sopater  ille  philosophus,  tandem  Adlabio  agente,  interfectus,  idque 
justa  Dei  dispensatione  quia  Constantinum  conatus  a  vera  religione  abaiienare. — 
Pagi,  Ann.  324,  n.  12,  quoted  by  Lardner,  vol.  4,  p.  371.  We  cannot  have 
this'fact  stated  with  too  great  precision.  I  therefore  copy  it  as  told  again  in  another 
passage,  which  Dr.  Lardner  renders  thus  from  Sozomen  :  "  1  am  not  ignorant  that 
the  Gentiles  are  wont  to  say,  that  Constantino  having  put  to  death  some  of  his  rela- 
tions, and  particularly  his  son  Crispus,  and  being  sorry  for  what  lie  had  done,  ap- 
plied to  SoPATKR  the  philosopher,  and  he  answering,  that  there  were  no  expia- 
tions for  such  offences,  the  emperor  then  had  recourse  to  the  Christian  bishops,  who 
told  him  that  by  repentance  and  baptism  he  might  be  cleansed  from  all  sin  :  with 
which  doctrine  he  was  well  pleased,  whereupon  he  became  a  Christian. — Lardner, 
vol.  4,  p.  400.  It  was  never  on  the  score  of  being  a  superior  code  of  morality  that 
Christianity  could  compete  with  Paganism. 

t  In  Vita  Constantine,  lib.  2,  c.  18  t  Ibid. 


FATHERS  OP  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.       355 

IV. —  The  evidences  of  Christianity  as  they  appeared  to  Constan- 
tine. 

Nothing  can  be  more  relevant  to  our  great  investigation, 
than  a  view  o£  the  evidences  of  Christianity  as  presented 
to  the  mind  of  the  royal  convert.  Without  passing  any 
judgment  on  his  character,  or  casting  any  reflections  on 
Christianity  from  a  consideration  of  the  motives  v/hich 
were  likely  to  induce  such  a  man  to  become  its  convert,  we 
are  to  remember  that  Constantine  was  not  a  disciple  merely, 
but  also  a  preacher  of  the  Christian  religion  ;  and  has  left 
us  the  whole  apparatus  of  argument,  upon  the  strength  of 
which,  he  not  only  became  a  Christian  himself,  but  which 
he  held  sufficient  to  convince  the  reason,  and  command 
the  faith  of  all  other  persons. 

It  is  not  possible  that  Christianity  should  ever  have 
possessed  evidence  of  any  sort  to  which  Constantine  could 
have  been  a  stranger. 

It  falls  not  within  the  measure  of  conceivable  probabili- 
ties, that  so  clever  a  man  as  Constantine  unquestionably 
was,  setting  himself  in  an  assembly  of  all  the  distinguished 
Christian  clergy  of  his  age  and  empire,  to  deliver  an  ora- 
tion expressly  on  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion,  should 
therein,  have  omitted  all  reference  to  its  greatest  and 
grandest  testimonies,  and  have  dwelt  only  on  such  as  were 
equivocal  or  nugatory  :  neither  will  conceit  itself  endure 
the  supposition,  that  Christianity  can,  since  his  day,  have 
acquired  any  increase  of  evidence,  so  that  it  should  be 
possible  for  us  of  later  times  to  have  other  and  better  rea- 
sons for  believing  it  than  our  forefathers  had,  or  that  that 
which  was  less  certain  at  first,  should  become  more  certain 
afterwards. 

An  attempt  to  give  the  substance  of  so  egregious  a 
rhapsody  of  mystical  jargon  as  his  oration  to  the  clergy, 
would  be  only  less  egregious  than  the  rhapsody  itself.  Let 
the  reader  suppose  himself  to  have  got  through  the  ten 
first  sections  of  it ;  and  here  begins  the  eleventh  of 

Constantine'' s  Oration  to  the  Clergy. 

"  But  I  intend  to  prosecute  the  eternal  decree  and  pur- 
pose of  God,  concerning  the  restoration  of  man's  corrupted 
life,  not  ignorantly,  as  many  do,  neither  trusting  to  opin- 
ion or  conjecture.  For,  as  the  Father  is  the  cause  of  the 
Son,  so  the  Son  is  begotten  of  that  cause  who  had  existence 
before  all  things,  as  we  have  demonstrated.     But  how  did 


356        FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY. 

he  descend  to  men  on  earth  ?  This,  was  out  of  his  own 
determinate  will,  because,  as  the  prophets  had  foretold,  he 
had  a  general  care  of  all  men.  For  needs  must  the  Work- 
man have  a  care  of  his  work.  But  when  he  came  into  the 
world,  by  assuming  a  bodily  presence,  and  was  to  stay 
and  converse  some  time  on  earth,  for  so  the  work  of  man's 
salvation  required,  he  found  a  way  of  birth  different  from 
the  common  birth  of  men,  for  there  was  a  conception  with- 
out a  marriage,  a  birth  without  a ;  while  a 

virgin  was  the  mother  of  God.  The  divine  essence,  which 
before  was  only  intelligible,  was  now  become  comprehen- 
sible :  and  incorporeal  divinity  was  now  united  unto  a 
material  body.  He  was  like  the  dove  which  flew  out  of 
Noah's  ark,  and  rested  at  length  on  a  virgin's  bosom.* 
After  his  birth,  the  wonderful  wisdom  and  providence  of 
God  protected  him  even  from  his  cradle.  The  river  Jordan 
was  honoured  with  his  baptism  ;f  he  had  the  royal  unc- 
tion besides  ;  by  his  doctrine  and  divine  power  he  wrought 
miracles,  and  healed  incurable  diseases.  Chap.  12.  We 
give  thee  all  possible  thanks,  0  Christ,  our  God  and  Sa- 
viour, the  wisdom  of  the  Father.  Chap.  15.  Moreover, 
we  certainly  know  that  the  Son  of  God  became  a  master  to 
instruct  the  wise  in  the  doctrine  of  salvation,  and  to  invite 
all  men  to  virtue,  that  he  called  unto  him  honest  industri- 
ous men,  and  instructed  them  in  modesty  of  life,  and  that 
he  taught  them  faith  and  justice,  which  are  repugnant  to 
the  envy  of  their  adversary  the  devil,  who  desireth  to  en- 
snare and  deceive  the  ignorant.  He  also  forbiddeth  lord- 
ship and  dominion,:}:  and  showeth  that  he  came  to  help 
the  meek  and  humble.  This  is  heavenly  and  divine  wis- 
dom, that  we  should  rather  suffer  injury  than  do  any,  and 
when  necessary  we  should  rather  receive  loss  than  do 
another  any  wrong  :§  for,  seeing  it  is  a  great  fault  to  do 
any  injury, ||  not  he  that  suffers  it,  but  he  that  doth  the  in- 
jury, shall  receive  the  greatest  punishment.H  This,  in  my 
opinion,  is  the  firm  basis  of  faith." 

*  I  sincerely  admire  the  dove's  taste,  and  envy  him  his  roost  :  but  where  did  he 
find  the  virgin,  when  every  body  was  drowned  ?  or  where  did  Constantine  find  the 
story  ? 

t  Query :  Was  he  baptized  to  wash  away  his  sins,  or  for  what  ? 

t  Compare  this  with  the  titles  and  honours  which  Constantine  himself  arrogated 
at  that  very  time  :  and  see  another  proof  that  from  first  to  last,  it  was  never 
understood  that  the  moral  precepts  of  Christ  were  so  mucli  as  uUended  to  be 
obeyed  ;  nobody  sets  them  so  much  at  defiance  as  the  most  zealous  believers  them- 
selves. 

§Rise:  II  Rise  ! 

IT  Riso  ghosts  of  Fausta,  Crispus  and  Licinius  !  ! 


FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.        357 

Chap.  18.  "  Here  we  must  needs  mention  a  certain 
testimony  of  Christ's  divinity,  fetched  from  those  who  were 
aliens  and  strang'ers  from  the  faith.  For  those  who  con- 
tumehously  detract  from  him,  if  they  will  give  credence  to 
their  own  testimonies,  may  sufficiently  understand  thereby 
that  he  is  both  God  and  the  Son  of  God.  For  the 
Erythraean  Sibyl,  who  lived  in  the  sixth  age  after  the  flood, 
being  a  priestess  of  Apollo,  did  yet,  by  the  power  of 
divine  inspiration^  prophecy  of  future  matters  that  were  to 
come  to  pass  concerning  God;  and,  by  the  first  letters,  which 
is  called  an  acrostic,  declared  the  history  of  Jesus.  The 
acrostic  is,  Jesus  Chnstus,  Dei  Filius,  Servator,  Crux.*  And 
these  things  came  into  the  Virgin's  mind  by  inspiration, 
and  by  way  of  prophecy.  And  therefore  I  esteem  her 
happy  whom  our  Saviour  did  choose  to  be  a  prophetess, 
to  divine  and  foretell  of  his  providence  towards  us." 

The  royal  preacher  proceeds  in  the  next  chapter  to  re- 
prove the  incredulity  of  those  who  doubt  the  genuineness 
of  this  sublime  doggerel. 

"  But  the  truth  of  the  matter,"  he  continues,  "  doth 
manifestly  appear;  for  our  writers  have  with  great  study 
so  accurately  compared  the  times,  that  none  can  suspect 
that  this  poem  was  made  and  came  forth  after  Christ's 
coming;  and,  therefore,  they  are  convicted  of  falsehood 
who  blaze  abroad,  that  these  verses  were  not  made  by  the 
Sibyl. 

And  then  follows  Chapter  20,  entitled  "  Other  verses 
of  Virgil  concerning  Christ,  in  which  under  certain  vails 

*  It  is  thus  accuj-ately  versified  into  English  by  the  translator  Wye  Salton- 
Atall  : 

I  n  that  time,  when  the  great  Judge  shall  come, 
E  arth  shall  sweat;  the  Eternal  King  from's  throne 
S  hall  judge  the  world,  and  all  that  in  it  be, 
U  nrighteous  men  and  righteous,  shall  God  see 
S  eated  on  high  with  saints  etemall-EE. 

C  ompassed,  which  in  the  last  age  have  been 
H  ence  shall  the  earth  grow  desolate  again 
R  egardless  statues  and  gold  shall  be  held  vain 
I  n  greedy  flames  shall  bum  earth  seas  and  skies, 
S  taud  up  again  dead  bodies  shall,  and  rise, 
T  hat  they  may  see  all  these  with  their  eyes. 

C  leansing  the  faithful  in  twelve  fountains.  He 

R  eign  shall  for  ever  unto  eternitee, 

V  ery  God  that  he  is,  and  our  Saviour  too, 

X  hrist  that  did  suffer  for  xxs—and  I  hope  that'll  do! 


358        FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY. 

(as  poets  use)  this  knotty  mystery  is  set  forth;"  and  to 
be  sure,  the  fourth  Bucolic  of  Virgil:  commencing 

Sicelides  musae  paulo  majora  canamus  ; 

(than  which,  the  power  of  imagination  could  hardly  jump 
further  away  from  all  relation  to  any  thing  of  the  kind) 
is  quoted  as  the  ultimate  proof  and  main  evidence  of  the 
Christian  revelation. 


The  amount  of  evidence  then,  for  the  Christian  reli- 
gion in  the  fourth  century,  as  far  as  evidence  influenced 
the  mind  of  the  most  illustrious  convert  it  could  ever 
boast,  was  the  Sibylline  verses,  now  on  all  hands  ad- 
mitted to  be  a  Christian  forgery;  and  a  mystical  inter- 
pretation arbitrarily  put  on  an  eclogue  of  Virgil,  which 
neither  the  poet  himself,  nor  any  rational  man  on  earth, 
ever  dreamed  of  charging  with  such  an  application.  There 
is  not  one  of  all  the  thousand- and-one  Arabian  Nights' 
Entertainments,  which  with  an  equal  licence  of  applica- 
tion might  not  be  shown  to  be  as  relevant  and  prophetical 
as  this. 

Surely  we  had  a  right  to  expect  from  Constantine,  that 
if  evidence  to  the  historical  facts  on  which  the  gospel 
rests  its  claims,  existed,  he  was  the  man  who  should  have 
been  acquainted  with  it; — this  was  the  occasion  on  which 
it  should  have  been  brought  forward.  Nor  are  we  to  be 
put  off"  with  the  old  fox's  apology — that  the  grapes  are  sour, 
and  that  Constantine's  testimony  would  have  reflected 
no  honour  on  Christianity.  Who,  of  all  the  whole  human 
race  could  better  have  known  the  fact,  or  with  greater 
propriety  have  given  a  certificate  of  it,  had  it  been  true 
that  such  a  person  as  Jesus  Christ  had  suffered  an  igno- 
minious death  under  one  of  his  predecessors  in  the  Roman 
empery  ?  Who,  should  have  adduced  the  admission  of 
Josephus,  the  testimony  of  Phlegon,  the  passage  of 
Tacitus,  nor  these  alone,  if  in  his  day  they  had  existed, 
but  ten  thousand  times  their  evidence,  or  (what  would 
have  been  equipollent  to  that)  should  have  produced  the 
sign  manual  of  Pontius  Pilate,  or  the  register  itself  of 
persons  put  to  death  under  his  viceroyalty,  but  Constan- 
tine, into  whose  hands  they  must  have  lineally  descended? 
Constantine  could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  their  exist- 
ence if  any  man  on  earth  had  known  of  it,  and  could  not 
have  failed  of  adducing  them,  had  he  known  of  them  him- 
self: and  if  he  had  known  and  adduced  them,  he  would 


FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.         359 

have  silenced  the  objections  of  millions  of  infidels :  and, 
if  infidelity  be  a  damnable  sin,  would  have  saved  millions 
from  damnation?  Surely  it  was  any  thing-  rather  than 
such  a  palpable  forgery  as  the  Sibylline  verses,  or  such 
infatuate  irrelevancy  as  a  heathen  eclogue,  that  we  should 
have  a  right  to  see  assigned  as  a  demonstration  of  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion!  We  wanted  not  allegories, 
nor  mystifications,  but  the  plain  matter-of-fact  evidence, 
which  might  have  excused  a  man  to  himself  as  a  rational 
being,  in  believing.  Where  is  that  evidence?  Where 
the  plausibility,  the  seeming,  the  shadow  of  an  historical 
fact? — in  heaven? — in  hell? — in  Brobdignag!  'Tis  no- 
where upon  earth.  Then  rail  at  us,  ye  consecrated  suc- 
cessors of  Constanline!  Persecute  us,  ye  lawyers!  De- 
nounce us,  ye  hypocrites!  Curse  us  all  ye  priests!  Rail, 
rant,  and  roar  for  it: — but  never  talk  of  evidence ! 


EUSEBIUS,  A.    D.    315. 

There  is  no  name  in  Ecclesiastical  History  of  equal  im- 
portance with  this:  no  character  with  whom  it  so  vitally 
concerns,  every  rational  man  to  be  thoroughly  acquainted, 
no  individual  of  the  whole  human  race,  on  whose  single  re- 
sponsibility, ever  hung  so  vast  a  weight  of  consequence. 
If  Eusebius  be  to  be  numbered  with  wise  and  good  men,  the 
strength  of  his  wisdom  and  the  sincerity  of  his  virtue,  are 
sterling  gold  to  the  value  of  the  Evidences  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  If  he  be  found  wanting,  just  in  so  much 
wanting  must  be  the  credibility  of  so  "much  of  the  Chris- 
tian evidence  as  rests  upon  his  testimony,  and  that  is,  all 
but  the  all  of  it.  "  Without  Eusebius,"  says  the  learned 
Tillemont,  "  we  should  scarce  have  had  any  knowledge 
of  the  history  of  the  first  ages  of  Christianity,  or  of  the 
authors  who  wrote  in  that  time.  All  the  Greek  authors 
of  the  fourth  century  who  undertook  to  write  the  history 
of  the  church,  have  begun  where  Eusebius  ended,  as 
having  nothing  considerable  to  add  to  his  labours." 

He  was  born,  as  is  generally  thought,  at  Csesarea  in 
Palestine,  about  the  year  270.  We  have  no  account  of 
his  parents,  or  who  were  his  instructors  in  early  life;  nor 
is  there  any  thing  certainly  known  of  his  family  and  re- 
lations. He  is  called  Pamphilus^  only  in  honour  of  his 
very  particular  friendship  for  the  martyr  of  that  name, 
who  had  been  a  presbyter  of  the  church  in  which  Euse- 


360  FATHERS    OP    THE    FOURTH    CENTURY* 

bius  succeeded  Agassius  as  bishop,  in  the  year  315* 
The  name  Eusehius  is  one  of  that  order  which  learned 
men  have  generally  claimed  to  themselves,  and  been 
allowed  to  hold,  either  as  expressive  of  the  characters 
they  sustained,  or  to  conceal  the  meanness  and  obscurity 
of  their  parentage,  such  as  our  Pelagius,  for  Morgan; 
Calvin,  for  Chauvin  ;  Melancthon,  for  Black  earth,  &c. 
Easebius,  literally  signifies,  one  who  is  correctly  religious. 

There  have  been  several  of  this  name,  but  none  of  the 
same  age  and  character,  with  whom  he  is  so  likely  to  be 
confounded,  as  his  contemporary,  and  brother  by  courtesy^ 
Eusehius,  bishop  of  Nicomedia, — who  calls  our  Eusebius 
his  Lord.  They  were  entire  friends,  and  so  intimate 
that  they  were  both  of  the  same  opinion  upon  the  Arian 
controversy  as  agitated  in  the  council  of  Nice,  which 
was  held  in  the  year  325,  and  in  which  our  Eusebius 
bore  a  most  distinguished  part. 

Eusebius  Pamphilus  was  Bishop  of  CcBsarea  from  the 
year  315  to  the  year  340,  in  which  he  died,  in  the  70th 
year  of  his  age,  thus  playing  his  great  part  in  life  chiefly 
under  the  reigns  of  Constantine  the  Great  and  his  son 
Constantius.  He  is  the  great  ecclesiastical  historian,  with 
whom  alone  it  is  our  concern  to  be  especially  acquainted. 
Ye  lit.tle  Eusebiuses  hide  your  diminished  heads! 

His  works  bear  testimony  to  a  character  of  very  great 
ability,  of  extraordinary  diligence,  and  of  an  esprit-du- 
corps,  or  high-church  passion  that  absorbed  every  other 
feeling,  and  would  have  induced  him,  as  it  did  many 
others,  to  sacrifice  not  only  life,  but  truth  itself,  to  the 
paramount  claims  of  the  church's  interests.  St.  Jerome 
gives  a  catalogue  of  his  works,  which  consisted  of  15 
Books  of  Evangelical  Preparation — as  preparatives  (or 
such  as  were  to  learn  the  doctrine  of  the  gospel.  (So  far 
was  this  great  historian  from  apprehending  that  ther.e 
was  sufficient  historical  evidence  to  connnand  any  man's 
rational  conviction,  without  a'  preparatory  discipline — a 
breaking-in  of  the  obstinacy  of  reason  and  common- 
sense,  and  "  bringing  down  every  high  thought  to  the 
obedience  of  faith;") — then  followed  his  20  books  of  Evan- 
gelical Demonstration,  in  which  he  proveth  and  confirmeth 
the  doctrine  of  the  New  Testament  \^ith  a  confutation  of 
;the  devil;  then  five  books  on  the  Divine  Apparition;''''*  ten 

*  Or  Thcophany,  that  is,  "  the  shinins^  forth  of  God;'"  a  conceit,  which  con- 
ceit itself  could  hardly  have  dreamed  of,  as  a  definition  of  the  Ufe  and  adven- 
tures of  the  son  of  a  frail  girl  of  Nazareth — the  hero  of  the  gimlet,  "  O,  it  out- 


FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.        361 

books  of  Ecclesiastical  History^  by  far  the  most  important 
and  valuable,  as  it  is  also  the  most  defective  of  his 
writings — a  general  recital  of  Chronical  Canons  with  an 
Epitome  of  the  same  ;  a  treatise  on  the  Discrepancy  of  the 
Evangelists. 

Ten  books  of  Commentary  upon  the  prophet  Isaiah. 

A  Commentary  on  the  150  Psalms. 

Three  books  on  the  Life  of  his  friend  Pamphilus. 

Six  books  in  Defence  of  Origen. 

Thirty  books  against  Porphyi^. 

Eight  books  against  Hierocles. 

Four  books  of  the  Life  of  Constantine. 

Books  on  Martyr ology. 

On  Fatal  Destiny. 

Three  books  against  Marcellus,  who  had  been  bishop  of 
Ancyra  in  Galatia,  and  deposed  upon  suspicion  of  heresy 
about  A.  D.  320. 

One  book  on.  Topics,  and  perhaps  others  innumerable, 
which  nobody  reads,  nor  would  be  the  wiser  for  reading. 
His  style,  however,  is  in  general  good,  and  his  Greek,  very 
fluent  and  easy  reading. 

He  has  been  accused  by  some  of  criminal  time-serving, 
and  of  sacrificing  to  the'  gods  to  subserve  some  temporal 
purpose  of  his  own,  but  not,  indeed,  on  any  satisfactory 
evidence  of  the  fact.  His  Life  of  Constantine,  however,  is 
an  incontrovertible  demonstration  against  him  ;  that  he 
never  let  a  regard  for  truth  stand  in  his  way  to  preferment, 
that  he  was  a  consummate  sycophant,  and  that  no  man 
better  understood,  or  more  successfully  practised,  the 
courtly  arts  of  standing  well  with  the  powers  that  be. 

Petavius  places  Eusebius  among  Arians,  and  the  learned 
Cave  allows  that  "there  are  many  unwary  and  dangerous 
expressions  in  his  writings.  He  subscribed  the  Nicene 
creed,  as  he  would  have  subscribed  any  other,  though 
contrary  to  his  convictions:*  and  to  the  sense  of  his 
writings  both  before  and  after  that  Council."!  On  which. 
Dr.  Lardner  affectedly  remarks,  that  "it  is  grievous  to 
think,  for  better  had  it  been  that  the  bishops  of  that  coun- 
cil had  never  met  together,  than  that  they  should  have 

Herod's  Herod  !"  All  other  divines  endeavour  to  subdue  our  reason, — the  assert- 
ers  of  the  humanity  of  Christ  insult  it. 

*  Like  our  own  Archdeacon  Paley,  "  he  could  not  afford  to  have  a  con- 
science.'^    See  his  Life  prefixed  to  his  Evidences  of  Christianity. 

t  Like  our  Archbishop  Magee,  "  he  might  have  believed  it  in  the  lump,  without 
believing  it  in  the  particular." — See  his  Evidence  before  the  House  of  Lords. 

32 


362        FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY. 

tempted  and  prevailed  upon  a  Christian  bishop,  or  any  one 
else,  to  prevaricate  and  act  against  conscience." 

"  This  author  was  a  witness  of  the  sufferings  of  the 
Christians,"  says  Dr.  Lardner,  "  in  the  early  part  of  his 
life,  and  afterwards  saw  the  splendor  of  the  Church,  under 
the  first  Christian  Emperor.  Like  most  other  great  men, 
he  has  met  with  good  report  and  ill  report ;  his  learning, 
however,  has  been  universally  allowed."  "  It  appears, 
(says  Tillemont)  from  his  works,  that  he  had  read  all 
sorts  of  Greek  authors,  whether  philosophers,  historians, 
or  divines,  of  Egypt,  PhoBnicia,  Asia,  Europe  and  Africa." 
*'  With  a  very  extensive  knowledge  of  literature  (contin- 
ues Dr.  Lardner),  he  seems  to  have  had  the  agreeable 
accomplishments  of  a  courtier.  He  was  both  a  bishop  and 
a  man  of  the  world  ;  a  great  author  and  a  fine  speaker.  We 
plainly  perceive  from  his  writings,  that  through  the 
whole  course  of  his  life,  he  was  studious  and  dili- 
gent, insomuch  that  it  is  wonderful  how  he  should  have 
had  leisure  to  write  so  many  large  and  elaborate  works 
of  different  kinds,  beside  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of 
his  fimction,  and  beside  his  attendance  at  Court,  at 
Synods,  and  the  solemnities  of  dedicating  churches.  He 
was  acquainted  with  all  the  great  and  learned  men  of  his 
time,  and  had  access  to  the  libraries  of  Jerusalem  and 
Csesarea  ;  which  advantage  he  improved  to  the  utmost. 
Some  may  wish  that  he  had  not  joined  with  the  Arian 
leaders  in  the  hard  treatment  that  was  given  to  Eustatius, 
Bishop  of  Antioch,  Athanasius  of  Alexandria,  and  Marcel- 
lus  of  Ancyra.  Jjat  it  should  be  considered,  that 
Christian  bishops  in  general,  after  the  conversion  of  Con- 
stantine,  seem  to  have  thought,  that  they  had  a  right  to 
depose  and  banish  all  ecclesiastics  who  did  not  agree  with 
them  upon  the  points  of  divinity  controverted  at  that 
time.  Finally  though  there  may  be  some  things  excep- 
tionable in  his  writings  and  conduct ;  his  zeal  for  the 
Christian  religion,  his  affection  for  the  martyrs,  his  grate- 
ful respect  for  his  friend  Pamphilus — his  diligence  in  col- 
lecting excellent  materials,  and  in  composing  useful  works 
for  the  benefit  of  mankind  ;  his  caution  and  scrupulous- 
ness in  not  vouching  for  the  truth*  of  Constan tine's  story  of 
the  apparition  of  the  cross,  as  well  as  other  things,  fully 

*  But  surely  this  lying'  by  proxy,  is  but  a  more  sneaking  and  cowardly  way 
of  lying  :  he  knew  that  the  falsehood  was  asserted,  and  profited  by  the  falsehood. 
He  lent  his  influence  to  it,  and  subscribed  it  with  the  consent  of  a  crimiflal 
eileuce ! 


FATHERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.        363 

satisfy  nie,  notwithstanding  ivhat  some  may  say,  that  he  was  a 
good  as  well  as  a  great  man."* 

Du  Pin  says  "  that  Eusebius  seems  to  have  been  very 
disinterested,  very  sincere,  a  great  lover  of  peace,  of  truth, 
and  religion.  Though  he  had  close  alliances  with  the 
enemies  of  Athanasius,  he  appears  not  to  have  been  his 
enemy  ;  nor  to  have  any  great  share  in  the  quarrels  of  the 
bishops  of  that  time.  He  was  present  at  the  councils 
where  unjust  things  were  transacted,  but  we  do  not  dis- 
cern that  he  showed  signs  of  passion  himself,  or  that  he 
was  the  tool  of  other  men's  passions.  He  was  not  the 
author  of  new  creeds — he  only  aimed  to  reconcile  and  re- 
unite parties.  He  did  not  abuse  the  interest  he  had  with 
the  Emperor,  to  raise  himself,  nor  to  ruin  his  enemies,  as 
did  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  but  he  improved  it  for  the 
benejfit  of  the  church."  Such  is  his  character,  as  drawn 
by  his  advocates  and  friends,  a  character  unfortunately 
pregnant  with  admissions  of  enough,  and  more  than 
enough,  to  justify  the  charges  of  Baronius  and  others, 
sincere  professors  of  the  Christian  faith,  who  have  brand- 
ed him  as  the  great  falsifier  of  ecclesiastical  history,  a  wily 
sycophant,  a  consummate  hypocrite,  and  a  time-serving 
fersecutor.  Indeed,  there  is  no  fair  evidence  in  any  thing 
that  appears  in  his  writings,  or  is  known  of  his  life,  to 
support  our  wish,  for  the  honour  of  human  nature,  to  be- 
lieve that  he  himself  believed  the  Christian  religion.  Had 
he  done  so,  can  we  think  that  he  would  have  deemed  it 
necessary  to  promote  that  cause  by  forgery  and  imposture, 
by  trickery  and  falsehood,  as  he  has  constantly  endeavour- 
ed to  do  } 

"  He  had  a  great  zeal  for  the  Christian  religion,"  says 
Dr.  Lardner,  and  so  far,  undoubtedly,  he  was  in  the  right, 
nevertheless  he  should  not  have  attempted  to  support  it 
by  weak  and  false  arguments.  "  It  is  wonderful,"  he  adds, 
"that  Eusebius  should  think  Philo's  Therapeutse  were 
Christians,  and  that  their  ancient  writings,  should  be  our 
gospels  and  epistles. 

"Agbarus's  letter  to  our  Saviour,  and  our  Saviour's  let- 
ter to  Agbarus,  copied  at  length  in  our  author's  Ecclesias- 
tical History,  are  much  suspected  by  many  learned  men 
not  to  be  genuine. 

"  If  the  testimony  to  Jesus  as  the  Christ,  had  been  from 
the  beginning  in  Josephus's  works,  it  is  strange  it  should 
never  have  been  quoted  by  ancient  apologists  for  Chris- 

*  Lardner,  Vol.  2,  p.  363. 


364  FATHERS    OF    THE    FOURTH    CENTURY. 

tianity,  and  now  in  the  beg-innins;  of  the  fourth  century, 
be  thoug-ht  so  important  as  to  be  quoted  by  our  author  in 
two  of  his  works  still  remaining."  That  is  to  say,  surely 
Eusebius  forged  it  himself !  for  the  purpose  of  quoting  his 
own  forgery.  There  was  never  an  advocate  of  the  Chris- 
tian evidences  yet,  whose  conscience  would  have  opposed 
any  hesitation  to  such  services,  in  so  good  a  cause. 

"  There  is  a  work  ascribed  to  Porphyry,  quoted  by  Eu- 
sebius in  his  Preparation  and  Demonstration.  If  that  work 
is  not  genuine  (and  I  think  it  is  not)  it  was  a  forgery  of 
his  own.  time,  and  the  quoting  it  as  he  does,  will  be  reck- 
oned an  instance  of  want  of  care  or  skill,  or  of  candour  and 
impartiality." 

"  Where  Josephus  says  that  Agrippa,  casting  his  eyes 
upwards,  saw  an  owl  sitting  upon  a  cord  over  his  head  ; 
our  ecclesiastical  historian  says,  he  saw  an  angel.  I  know 
not  what  good  apology  can  be  made  for  this." 

So  delicately  does  Dr.  Lardner  glance  at  the  peccadil- 
loes of  the  great  Christian  historian  :  to  say  nothing  of 
his  entirely  passing  over  the  altogether  Popish  character  of 
the  religion  he  professed  ;  the  masses  said  for  the  soul  of 
Constantine,  his  own  fulsome  panegeric  on  that  great 
monster  of  iniquity,  and  the  innumerable  instances  of  de- 
ceit and  cunning  which  will  be  found  by  every  shrewd 
student  of  his  writings. 

Eusebius  held  that  Jesus  Christ  created  the  substance 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  ridiculously,  or  rather  perhaps  sar- 
castically, hints  that  miracles  were  still  in  vogue,  even  in 
his  own  time,  only  they  were  little  ones. 

His  adducing,  however,  of  the  authority  of  the  elders 
of  the  churches  of  Lyons  ^nd  Vienne,  without  directly 
pledging  his  own  authority,  to  obtain  belief  from  who- 
ever would  believe  the  stories  of  the  martyrdoms  of  the 
saints  of  those  churches,  and  of  some  whose  bodies 
were  actually  found  alive  and  uninjured  in  the  stomachs 
of  the  wild  beasts  who  had  devoured  them,*  is  proof  enough 
of  his  art  in  supplying  miracles  adapted  to  the  meanest 
capacity,  and  a  grand  specimen  of  that  peculiarly  eccle- 
siastical finesse,  in  which  Dr.  Lardner  himself  is  an 
exquisite  proficient  ;  the  contriving  to  reap  the  effect  of 
falsehood,  without  incurring  its  responsibilities,  lying  by 
proxy,  and  pushing  what  they  never  believed  them- 
selves into  credence,  as  far  as  credence  would  follow, 
without  committing  themselves  in  any  sufficiently  honest 

*  Lardner's  Credibility,  Vol.  4,  p.  91. 


HERETICS.  365 

expression  to  enable  a  man  to  lay  the  blame  of  it  directly 
at  their  own  door.  Thus  also,  the  grave  and  solemn  Ter- 
tullian  assures  us  of  a  fact  which  he  and  all  the  ortho- 
dox of  his  time  credited,  that  the  body  of  a  Christian 
which  had  been  some  time  buried,  moved  itself  to  one 
side  of  the  grave  to  make  room  for  another  corpse  which 
was  going  to  be  laid  by  it.*  We  have  no  less  credible 
accounts  of  a  holy  dog,  who  used  to  slide  along  on  his 
haunches  to  receive  the  sacrament,  and  to  watch  over  the 
chvu-ch-yard  like  a  guardian  angel,  and  when  he  saw  any 
other  dogs  about  to  ease  themselves  upon  the  graves  of 
the  saints,  he  would  instantly  set  on  them,  and  teach 
them  to  go  further.  He  was  actually  canonized  by  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  and  many  splendid  and  glorious  miracles 
were  wrought  at  the  shrine  of  the  Holy  Dog,  St.  Towzer.f 

Saint  Augustin,  in  like  manner,  preached  the  Gospel  to 
whole  nations  of  men  and  women,  who  he  assures  us  had 
no  heads. — Query,  could  he  mean  any  thing  else  than 
that,  in  believing  the  gospel,  men  and  women  have  no 
need  of  heads.     In  a  word, 

Eusebius,  like  many  other  great  men  was  drawn  into 
the  frightful  vortex  of  superstition,  and  had  no  alterna- 
tive but  to  whirl  round  in  it,  or  sink.  Like  thousands  of 
his  order  at  this  day,  he  both  preached  and  wrote  what 
he  never  believed  himself,  nor  could  believe.  It  is  only 
when  Religion  shall  be  no  more,  that  Hypocrisy  shall  be 
no  more:  as  it  is,  there  is  but  one  rule  in  theological 
arithmetic — i.  e.  the  greater  saint,  the  greater  liar! 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

TESTIMONY    OF    HERETICS. 

The  only  definition  that  will  express  the  distinction 
between  orthodoxy  and  heresy,  is,  that  the  orthodox 
party  are  those  who  have  the  upper  hand,  the  heretics  are 
those  who  have  the  misfortune  to  get  ousted.  All  Dissen- 
ters are  heretics.  Should  any  order  of  those  of  the  present 
day  come  to  possess  themselves  of  the  ascendancy,  (which 

*  TertuUian  De  An.  c.  51,  quoted  by  Evanson,  p.  15. 

t  The  relics  of  this  tnily  Chinstian  Dog  are  presei-ved  m  the  parish  church 
of  San  Andres,  near  ValladoHd,  to  this  day.  His  soul  is  with  Jesus.  We  may 
laugh  at  this  m  England;  but  he  would  be  a  brave  man  who  laughed  at  it  in  Spain. 
See  Catholic  Miracles,  p.  43. 

S2* 


366  HERETICS. 

God  avert)  how  absurd  or  monstrous  soever  their  religious 
tenets  might  be,  they  would  forthwith  become  perfectly- 
orthodox;  and  the  church,  in  its  turn,  losing  hold  of  the 
great  pnmum-mobile  of  divinity  (its  revenues  and  honours) 
might  carry  with  it  the  selfsame  doctrines  which  it  now 
holds,  into  a  state  of  the  most  deplorable  and  damnable 
heresy.  "  The  learned  have  reckoned  upwards  of  ninety 
dilTerent  heresies  which  arose  within  the  first  three  cen- 
turies; nor  does  it  appear  that  even  the  most  early  and 
primitive  preachers  of  Christianity,  were  able  to  keep  the 
telling  of  the  Christian  story  in  their  own  hands,  or  to 
provide  any  sort  of  security  for  having  it  told  in  the  same 
way. 

St.  Paul  accuses  St.  Peter  of  wilfully  corrupting  the 
gospel  of  Christ,*  and  (whatever  we  may  feel  ourselves 
bound  to  think  of  himself)  makes  no  mincing  of  the  mat- 
ter, in  telling  us,  that  the  other  apostles  were  "/a/se 
apostles,  deceitful  icorkers,  dogs,  and  liars,  and  that  they  preach- 
ed Christ  out  of  envy  and  strife.''''] 

In  the  epistles  ascribed  to  John,  and  which  are  admitted 
to  have  been  written  some  time  before  either  of  our  gos- 
pels; it  appears  that  there  were  persons  professing  the 
Christian  faith,  who  considered  that  a  belief  that  such  a 
person  as  Jesus  Christ  had  ever  existed,  was  no  part  of 
that  faith;  and  that  he  was  denied  to  have  had  any  real 
existence  as  a  man,  or  to  have  come  in  the  flesh,  at  a  time 
when,  if  that  fact  could  have  been  established,  there  would 
have  been  no  occasion  to  make  a  virtue  of  any  man's 
faith:  the  matter  could  at  once  have  been  settled  for  ever 
on  a  basis  of  certainty  that  would  have  prevented  the 
power  of  the  mind  to  conceive  a  doubt  on  the  subject. 

The  very  earliest  Christian  writings  that  have  come 
down  to  us,  are  of  a  controversial  character,  and  written 
in  attempted  refutation  of  heresies.  These  heresies  must 
therefore  have  been  of  so  much  earlier  date  and  prior 
prevalence;  they  could  not  have  been  considered  of  suf- 
ficient consequence  to  have  called  (as  they  seem  to  have 
done)  for  the  entire  devotion  and  enthusiastic  zeal  of  the 
orthodox  party  to  extirpate,  or  keep  them  under,  if  they 
had  not  acquired  deep  root,  and  become  of  serious  noto- 
riety— an  inference  which  leads  directly  to  the  conclusion 
that  they  were  of  anterior  origination  to  any  date  that  has 
hitherto  been  ascribed  to  the  gospel  history.     When  the 

*  Galatians  ii.  14  ;  Acts  xv.  39;  Philippians  iii.  2;  Phil.  i.  15,  &c. 
+  1  John  iv.  3. 


HERETICS.  367 

simple  fact  of  the  existence  of  such  a  man  as  Jesus 
Christ  is  questioned,  it  is  usual  for  the  modern  advocates 
of  Christianity  to  shelter  themselves  from  all  contempla- 
tion of  the  historical  difficulties  of  the  case,  by  assuming 
his  existence  to  be  incontrovertible,  and  that  nothing 
short  of  idiotcy  of  understanding-,  or  an  intention  to  irri- 
tate and  annoy,  rather  than  either  to  seek  or  to  communi- 
cate information,  could  prompt  any  man  to  moot  a  doubt 
on  the  subject;  nor  is  it  in  the  power  of  language  to  ex- 
ceed the  airs  of  insolence  and  domination  which  even  our 
Unitarian  theologers  assume,  to  cloak  over  their  inability 
to  give  satisfaction  on  this,  the  simplest  and  prime  posi- 
tion of  the  case,  by  taking  it  for  granted,  forsooth,  that 
none  but  reckless  desperates,  or  downright  fools,*  could 
ever  have  held  the  human  existence  of  Christ  as  proble- 
matical. We  might,  say  they,  as  well  affect  to  deny  the 
existence  of  such  an  individual  as  Alexander  the  Great, 
or  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  and  so  set  at  defiance  the 
evidence  of  all  facts  but  such  as  our  senses  have  attested. 
It  being  quite  forgotten  that  the  existence  of  Alexander 
and  Napoleon  was  not  miraculous,  and  that  there  never 
was  on  earth  one  other  real  personage  whose  existence 
as  a  real  personage  was  denied  and  disclaimed  even  as 
soon  as  ever  it  was  asserted,  as  was  the  case  with  respect 
to  the  assumed  personality  of  Christ.  But  the  only  com- 
mon character  that  runs  through  the  whole  body  of  here- 
tical evidence,  is  that  they  one  and  all,  from  first  to  last, 
deny  the  existence  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  man,  and  profess- 
ing their  faith  in  him  as  a  God  and  Saviour,  yet  vmiformly 
and  consistently  hold  the  whole  story  of  his  Ufe  and  ac- 
tions to  be  allegorical.  "  The  greatest  part  of  the  Gnos- 
tics (taking  that  name  as  the  most  general  one  for  all  the 
heretics  of  the  three  first  centuries)  denied  that  Christ 
was  clothed  with  a  real  body,  or  that  he  suffered  really. "f 
Tertullian  speaks  of  only  two  heresies,  that  existed  in 
the  time  of  the  Apostles,  i.  e.  the  Docet.e,  so  called  from 
the  Greek  Joxuai?  opinion,  suspicion,  appearance  merely, 
as  expressive  of  their  opinion  that  Christ  had  existed  in 
appearance  only,  and  not  in  reality;  and  the  Eeionites, 
so  called  from  the  Hebrew  word  abionim,  in  expression  of 
their  poverty,  ignorance,  and  vulgarity. :{:     Docetism,  says 

*  Let  any  man  only  read  the  Preface  to  the  Rev.  J.  R.  Beard's  Historical 
Evidences  of  Christianity  Unassailable,  and  imagine  if  he  can,  how  either  God 
or  Pope  could  ever  have  thundered  v?ith  more  audacious  Godhead. 

t  Mosheim,Vol.  1,  p.  136. 

t  Quoted  in  Lardner,  vol.  4,  p.  512. 


368  HERETICS. 

Dr.  Lardner,  "  seems  to  have  derived  its  origin  from  the 
Platonic  philosophy.  For  the  followers  of  this  opinion 
were  principally  among  the  higher  classes  of  men,  and 
were  chiefly  those  who  had  been  converted  from  heathen- 
ism to  Christianity."*  As  far  then,  as  such  a  question 
admits  of  proof,  this  is  absolute  proof  that  no  such  a 
person  as  Jesus  Christ  ever  existed, — "  Blow  winds,  and 
crack  your  cheeks!" 


HERETICS    WHO    DENIED    CHRIST's    HUMANITY. 

Within  the  immediate  year  of  the  alleged  crucifixion  of 
Christ,  or  sooner  than  any  other  account  of  the  matter 
could  have  been  made  known,  it  was  publicly  taught,  that 
instead  of  having  been  miraculously  born,  and  having 
passed  through  the  impotence  of  infancy,  boyhood,  and 
adolescence,  he  had  descended  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan 
in  the  form  of  perfect  manhood,  that  he  had  imposed  on 
the  senses  of  his  enemies,  and  of  his  disciples,  and  that 
the  ministers  of  Pilate  had  wasted  their  impotent  rage  on 
an  airy  phantom. f  Cotelerius  has  a  strong  passage  to 
this  effect,  that  "  it  would  be  as  it  were  to  deny  that  the 
sun  shines  at  mid-day,  to  question  the  fact  that  this  was 
really  the  first  way  in  which  the  gospel  story  was  related:" 
"  While  the  apostles  were  yet  on  earth,  nay,  while  the 
blood  of  Christ  was  still  recent  on  Mount  Calvary,  the 
body  of  Christ  was  asserted  to  be  a  mere  phantasm"| 

The  heretics  in  regular  succession  from  Simon  Magus, 
so  considerable  a  hero  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  down- 
wards— as  Menander,  Marcion,  Valentine,  Basilides, 
Bardesanes,  Cerdon,  Manes,  Leucius,  Faustus, — vehe- 
mently denied  the  humanity  of  Christ. 


Though  Dr.  Lardner  thinks  the  testimony  of  Cerdon  of 
sufficient  respectability  to  assist  the  claims  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  concludes  that  Cerdon  was  a  Christian, 
and  received  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  as  other 
Christians  did;  yet,  taking  that  book  as  his  guide,  he 
established  his  sect  at  Rome,  where  he  taught,  (the  New 

*  Quoted  in  Lardner,  vol.  4,  p.  628.  t  Syntagma,  p.  101. 

t  Apostolis  adhuc  in  saeculo  superstitibus  apud  Judaeam  Christi  sanguine  re- 
centc,  et  Phantasma  corpus  Domini  asserebatur. — Cotel.  Patres  Jlpostol, 
torn.  2,  p.  24. 


HERETICS.  369 

Testament  in  his  understanding  of  it  containing-  nothing-  to 
the  contrary),  that  "  our  Savour  Jesus  Christ  was  not  born 
of  a  virg'in,  nor  did  appear  at  all  in  the  flesh,  nor  had  he 
descended  from  heaven  ;  but  that  he  was  seen  by  men 
only  putatively,  that  is,  they  fancied  they  saw  him,  but  did 
not  see  him  in  reality,  for  he  was  only  a  shadoio^  and  seemed 
to  suffer,  but  in  reality  did  not  suffer  at  all." 


MARCION  OF  PONTUS,    A.    D.    127. 

The  successor  of  Cerdon,  and  himself  the  son  of  the 
orthodox  bishop  of  that  city,  whose  opinions,  according 
to  the  testimony  of  his  adversary  Epiphanias,  prevailed, 
and  in  his  own  day  still  subsisted  throughout  Italy,  Egypt, 
Palestine,  Arabia,  and  Syria,  was  so  far  from  believing 
that  our  Saviour  was  born  of  a  virgin,  that  he  did  not  al- 
low that  he  had  ever  been  born  at  all.  He  maintained 
that  the  son  of  God  took  the  exterior  form  of  a  man,  and 
appeared  as  a  man,  but  without  being  born,  or  gradually 
growing  up  to  the  full  stature  of  a  man,  he  had  showed 
himself  at  once  in  Galilee,  completely  equipped  for  his  di- 
vine mission,  and  that  he  immediately  assumed  the  char- 
acter of  a  Saviour. 

Dr.  Lardner  instructs  us  that  the  Marcionites  (the  fol- 
lowers of  the  opinions  of  Marcion)  believed  the  miracles 
of  Christ  ;  they  moreover  allowed  the  truth  of  the  miracu- 
lous earthquake  and  darkness  at  the  crucifixion  ;  they 
acknowledged  his  having  had  twelve  disciples,  and  that 
one  of  them  was  a  traitor.  "It  is  evident  that  these 
persons  were  in  general  strictly  virtuous,  that  they  dreaded 
sin  as  the  greatest  evil,  and  had  such  a  real  regard  for 
Christ  as  to  undergo"  martyrdom  rather  than  offer  incense 
to  idols."  (605.)  This  was  at  least  so  much  more  than 
Origen,  with  all  his  orthodoxy,  would  do.  If  we  deny 
these  men  to  have  been  Christians,  to  whom  shall  we 
confine  that  designation  ?  It  cannot  be  disputed  that  the 
Gospel  according  to  St.  Mark  does  admit  of  a  Marcionite 
reading  ;  nor  did  these  primitive  dissenters  entirely  reject 
Luke's  Gospel,  though  in  their  copy  of  that  Gospel  the 
verse  39  of  its  24th  chapter*  contained  the  little  particle 
NOT,    where  our  copies  have    omitted  it — an    omission 

*  Lukexxiv.  39.  "  Handle  me  and  see ;  for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and 
bones  as  you  see  me  have."  The  Marcionite  reading  was, — &c.  "  a  spirit  hath 
not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see  that  1  have  not." — '4'iilatfriaaxt  ^t  xoti  idtre  oTt 
nytv^a  aaqxa,  xai  oarta  ovk  tjfei,  Xtt9mg  tfit  ^ewgeiTS  ovx  txona. 


370  HERETICS. 

which,  at  the  first  blush,  seems  to  make  a  trifling  differ- 
ence. Tertullian,  in  his  way,  is  indecently  eloquent  in  de- 
scribing the  tenets  which  the  Marcionites  held  with  re- 
spect to  the  person  of  Christ.* 

LEUCIUS,    A.    D.    143. 

Or  Lucian,  for  he  had  many  names — Lucanus,  Lucius, 
Leicius,  Lentitius,  Leontius,  Seleucius,  Charnius,  Leo- 
nides,  and  even  Nexocharides,  which  mean  all  one  and 
the  same  person,  was  a  distinguished  Christian  Docete, 
and  one  of  the  most  eminent  forgers  of  sacred  legends  of 
the  second  century.  He  is  charged  with  being  the  forger 
of  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  and  was  the  author  of  the 
forged  acts  or  journeyings  of  the  Apostles.  In  the  com- 
mentaries which  go  under  the  name  of  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, a  passage  from  this  work  is  quoted,  which  says 
that  the  Apostle  John,  "  attempting  to  touch  the  body  of 
Christ,  perceived  no  hardness  of  the  flesh,  and  met  with 
no  resistance  from  it,  but  thrust  his  hand  into  the  inner 
part."  A  sense  which,  whatever  sense  or  nonsense  there 
be  in  it,  is  at  least  kept  in  countenance  by  St.  Luke's  Gos- 
pel (if  this  Lucius  and  our  Luke  are  not  one  and  the  same 
person),  where  Luke  tells  us  of  Christ's  vanishing  away^ 
which  no  hotly  could  do  (Chap.  24,  v.  31),f  and  then,  with- 
out any  entree,  standing  again  (a  la  vampire)  in  the  midst 
of  them  (v.  36.)  Say  we  nothing  of  the  corroboration 
from  St.  John's  Gospel,  where  he  bids  Thomas  thrust  his 
hand  into  his  side,  which  no  body  could  have  endured 
(John  XX.  27.),  but  refused  to  let  the  lady  Magdalene  so 
much  as  touch  him,  which  no  body  could  have  had  any 
objection  to.  (v.  17.)  We  have  nt)  reason,  however,  to 
think  this  Leucius  any  the  sorryer  a  Christian  because 
Pope  Gelasius  has  condemned  him  and  his  writings,  de- 
claring that  all  his  writings  are  apochryphal,  and  he  him- 
self a  disciple  of  the  devil. 


APELLES,    A.    D.    160, 

That  is,  about  twenty  years   after  the  establishment  of 
Marcion,  whose  disciple  he  had  been,  made  a  schism  from 

*  Non  novetn  rfiensium  cruciatu  deliberatus,  non  subita  dolorum  concussione  per 
corporis  cloacam  eflusus  in  terrain,  nee  molestus  uberibus  diu  infans,  vix  puer, 
tarde  homo  sed  de  copIo  expositus,  semel  grandis,  semel  totua,  statira  Christus, 
Spiritus  et  Virtus  et  Deus  tantum. — Adv.  Marcion,  601. 

t  JCoi  auTos  utfavToq  tyivixo  an*  avrmy. 


HERETICS.  371 

the  Marcionite  church  ;  and  thus  we  trace  by  what  de- 
grees the  Docetiaii  doctrines  Avere  brought  into  a  nearer 
conformity  to  the  present  type  of  Christianity,  and  what 
was  originally  romance  began  to  assume  a  certain  resem- 
blance to  history. 

Apelles  renounced  the  doctrine  of  Docetism,  and  main- 
tained that  Christ  was  not  an  appearance  only,  but  had 
flesh  really,  though  not  derived  from  the  Virgin  Mary,  for 
as  he  descended  from  the  supercelestial  places  to  this 
earth,  he  collected  to  himself  a  body  out  of  the  four  ele- 
ments. Having  thus  formed  to  himself  a  corporeity,  he 
really  appeared  in  this  world,  and  taught  men  the  know- 
ledge of  heavenly  things.  Apelles  taught  that  Jesus  was 
really  crucified,  and  afterwards  showed  that  very  flesh  in 
which  he  suftered,  to  his  disciples  ;  but  that  afterwards,  as 
he  ascended,  he  returned  the  body  which  he  had  borrowed 
back  again  to  the  elements,  and  so  completed  his  anabasis, 
and  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  without  any  body 
at  all.  According  to  this  Father,  however,  Christ  was  not 
bom^  nor  was  his  body  like  ours  ;  for  though  it  was  real 
and  solid,  it  consisted  of  aerial  and  etherial  particles,  not 
of  such  gross  matter  as  our  frail  bodies  are  composed  of. 
— It  was  a  sort  of  amber. 


The  most  learned  and  intelligent  Manichean,  whom  we 
have  elsewhere  quoted  as  directly  charging  the  orthodox 
party  with  having  egregiously  falsified  the  gospels,*  (a 
charge  which  the  orthodox  only  answer,  by  retorting  it 
again  upon  the  heretics,)  in  his  interrogative  style,  thus 
expresses  himself—"  jT>o  you  receive  the  gospel  ?  (ask  ye) 
Undoubtedly  I  do  !  Why  then,  you  also  admit  that  Christ 
was  born  ?— Not  so  ;  for  it  by  no  means  follows,  that 
in  believing  the  gospel,  I  should  therefore  believe  that 
Christ  was  born  !  Do  you  not  then  think  that  he  was 
of  the  Virgin  Mary  ?  Manes  hath  said,  '  Far  be  it  that 
I  should  ever  own  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  *  * 


*  See  pp.  65,  66,  and  114,  in  this  Diegesis. 

t  Accipis  evangelium  ?  Et  maxime.  Proinde  ergo  et  natum  accipis  Christnm  ? 
Non  ita  est.  Neque  enim  sequitur  ut  si  evangelium  accipio,  idcirco  et  natum  ac- 
cipiam  Ciiristun-,.  Ergo  non  putas  eum  ex  Maria  Virgine  esse  ?  Manes  dLxit, 
Absit  ut  Dominum  nosti-um  Jesum  Christum  per  naturalia  pudenda  mulieris  de 
scendisse  contitear. — Lardnery  ita,  vol.  4,  p.  20. 


372  HERETICS. 


HERETICS    WHO    DENIED    CHRIST'S    DIVINITY. 

Down  the  whole. stream  of  time,  to  the  present  day, 
there  has  been  a  long  succession  of  heretics,  whose  tenets 
were  the  diametrical  reverse  of  these  of  the  more  early- 
Christians.  From  Artemon,  Theodotus,  Sabellius,  Paul  of 
Samosata,  Marcellus,  Photinus,  &c.  we  inherit  the  curse 
of  the  Unitarian  scliism^  which  denies  the  divinity.,  as  stre- 
nuously, as  the  earlier  Fathers  had  denied  the  humanity  of 
Christ.  The  orthodox  have  devised  a  scheme  that  seems 
to  have  been  intended  to  bring  both  parties  together,  or 
to  enable  them  to  turn  their  arms  either  against  the  one  " 
faction  or  the  other,  as  political  interests  might  prompt, 
or  need  require  ;  and  the  union  of  the  two  natures — per- 
fect God  and  perfect  man — is  now  the  orthodox  divinity. 
It  is,  I  suppose,  upon  inference  from  these  difficulties, 
which  never  could  have  been  started  with  respect  to  any 
being  who  had  ever  really  existed  ;  or  which  being  started, 
could  have  been  settled  at  once  and  for  ever,  by  the  pro- 
duction of  any  one  municipal  certificate,  or  independent 
historical  testimony,  that  Mr.  Volney,  Mr.  Carlile,  and 
other  persons  who  do  not  exactly  deserve  to  be  considered 
as  idiots,  have  ventured  to  deny  that  any  such  person  as 
Jesus  ever  existed. 

It  is  of  essential  consequence  to  be  borne  in  view,  that 
in  order  of  time. 

Those  who  denied  the  humanity  of  Christ  were  the  first 
class  of  professing  Christians,  and  not  only  first  in  order  of 
time,  but  in  dignity  of  character,  in  intelligence,  and  in 
moral  influence. 

Those  who  denied  the  divinity,  were  the  second,  and  in 
every  sense  a  less  philosophical  and  less  important  body. 

The  junction  of  the  two  in  the  mongrel  scheme  of  mod- 
ern orthodoxy,  seems  to  have  been  completed  in  the  arti- 
cles of  peace  drawn  up  for  the  Council  of  Nice,  a.  d.  325. 

The  denicrs  of  the  humanity  of  Christ,  or,  in  a  word, 
professing  Christians,  who  denied  that  any  such  a  man  as 
Jesus  Christ  ever  existed  at  all,  but  who  took  the  name  Je- 
sus Christ  to  signify  only  an  abstraction,  or  prosopopseia, 
the  principle  of  Reason  personified  ;  and  who  understood  the 
whole  gospel  story  to  be  a  sublime  allegory,  or  emblema- 
tical exhibition  of  the  sufferings  and  persecutions  which 
the  divine  principle  of  reason,  may  be  supposed  to  undergo, 
ere  it  could  establish  its  heavenly  kingdom  over  the  under- 


HERETICS.  373 

standings  and  affections  of  men; — these  were  the  first, 
and  (it  is  no  dishonour  to  Christianity  to  pronounce  them) 
the  best  and  most  rational  Christians.  Many  such  fell 
victims  to  the  sincerity  of  their  faith,  not,  indeed,  as  is 
monstrously  pretended  by  the  persecuting-  g-enius  of  Pa- 
ganism, but  by  the  remorseless  savageness  of  the  infatu- 
ated idiots,  who,  having  once  been  interested  in  the  alle- 
gorical fiction,  like  our  country  louts  or  Unitarian  stolids 
of  the  present  day,  would  needs  have  it  that  it  must  all  be 
true,  and  were  ready  to  tear  any  one  to  pieces  who  at- 
tempted to  deprive  them  of  the  agreeable  delusion. 

The  allegorical  sense  may,  by  any  unsophisticated 
mind,  be  still  traced;  and,  by  changing  the  name  Jesus 
throughout  for  that  of  Reason,  the  New  Testament  will 
acquire  a  character  of  comparative  dignity  and  consis- 
tency, which  without  that  clue  to  the  interpretation  of  it, 
would  be  sought  for  in  vain. 


HERETICS    WHO    DENIED    CHRISt's    CRUCIFIXION. 

Not  only  among  the  Apostles,  but  by  those  who  were 
called  Apostles  themselves,  was  the  reality  of  the  cruci- 
fixion steadily  denied.  In  the  gospel  of  the  Apostle  Bar- 
nabas, of  which  there  is  extant  an  Italian  translation 
written  in  1470,  or  in  1480,  which  Toland*  himself  saw, 
and  which  was  sold  by  Cramer  to  Prince  Eugene,  it  is  ex- 
plicitly asserted,  that  "Jesus  Christ  ivas  not  crucified,  but 
that  he  was  taken  up  into  the  third  heavens  by  the  min- 
istry of  four  angels,  Gabriel,  Michael,  Raphael,  and 
Uriel;  that  he  should  not  die  till  the  very  end  of  the 
world,  and  that  it  was  Judas  Iscariot,  who  was  crucified 
in  his  stead." 

This  account  of  the  matter  entirely  squares  with  the 
account  which  we  have  of  the  bitter  and  unappeaseable 
quarrel  which  took  place  between  Paul  and  Barnabas,  in 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, f  without  any  satisfactory  account 
of  the  ground  of  that  quarrel;  as  well  as  with  the  fact  that 
Paul  seems  always  to  have  preferred  imposing  his  gospel 
on  the  io-norant  and  credulous  vulgar,  and  lays  such  a 
significant  emphasis  on  the  distinction  that  he  preached 
"Jesus   Christ,   and  Him  crucified^''''  as  if  in  marked  op- 

*  Toland's  Nazarenus,  Letter  I.  Chap.  5,  p.  17. 

t  Acts  XV.  39.  "  And  the  contention  was  so  sharp  betioeen  them,  that  they 
departed  asunder  one  from  the  other."  We  never  hear  of  their  being  recon- 
ciled again — but  that  is  not  extraordinary — no  beast  in  nature  is  so  implacable  as  an 
offended  saint. 

33 


374  HERETICS. 

position  to  his  former  patron,  Barnabas,  who  preached  Je- 
sus Christ,  but  not  crucified. 

The  Basilidians,  in  the  very  beginning  of  Christianity,  in 
like  manner  denied  that  Christ  was  crucified,  and  assert- 
ed that  it  was  Simon  of  Cyrene,  who  was  crucified  in  his 
place:  which  account  of  the  matter  stood  its  ground  from 
the  first  to  the  seventh  century,  and  was  the  form  in  which 
Christianity  presented  itself  to  the  mind  of  Mahomet,  who, 
after  instructing  us  how  the  Virgin  Mary  conceived  by 
smelling  a  rose,  tells  us,  that  "  the  Jews  devised  a  stratagem 
against  him,  but  God  devised  a  stratagem  against  them,  and  God 
is  the  best  deviser  of  stratagems.''^  "  The  malice  of  his  ene- 
mies aspersed  his  reputation,  and  conspired  against  his 
life,  but  their  intention  only  was  guilty,  a  phantom  or  a 
criminal  was  substituted  on  the  cross,  and  the  innocent 
Jesus  was  translated  into  the  seventh  heaven."* 

So  much  for  the  evidence  of  the  Crucifixion  of  Christ! 


HERETICS    WHO    DENIED    CHRIST's    RESURRECTION. 

In  like  manner,  we  have  a  long  list  of  sincerely-pro- 
fessing Christians  down  from  the  earliest  times,  who  denied 
the  resurrection  of  Christ. 

Theodoret  informs  us  of  Cerinthus,  who  was  contem- 
porary with  the  Apostle  John  and  his  followers,  and  that 
he  held  and  taught  that  Christf  suflfered  and  was  crucified, 
but  that  he  did  not  rise  from  the  tomb:  but  that  he  vdll 
rise  when  there  shall  be  a  general  resurrection.  Phi- 
laster  says  of  him|  that  he  taught  that  men  should  be 
circumcised,  and  observe  the  Sabbath,  and  that  Christ 
was  not  yet  risen  from  the  dead,  only  he  announces  that 
he  will  rise. 

Had  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels  been  really  the  founder  of 
the  Christian  religion,  certainly  it  would  be  incumbent  on 
all  Christians  to  be  circumcised  as  he  was,  and  to  observe 
that  Jewish  law  only,  which  he  observed,  and  which  he  was 
so  far  from  abrogating,  that  he  declared  that  "heaven  and 
earth  should  pass  away  ere  one  jot  or  one  tittle  of  that 
law,"  should  be  dispensed  with. — Matt.  v.  18.  Our  modern 
religionits  are  Paulites:  The  Jews  alone  are  the  followers 
of  the  example  and  religion  of  Jesus. 

*  See  the  Koran,  C.  iii  v.  53,  and  C.  iv.  v.  156,  of  Maracci's  edition. 

t  Xqiotov  ntitov&ivai  xai  tanxvQoja^ai  :  ftijTtu)  itiytiYtQ&ai  :  fitXitiv  d» 
ayiaran^ut  orov  ?;  xad^oXov  ytvfirai  vfxQav  avaaraoi?. 

X  Docel  autetn  circumcidi  et  sabbatizare  et  Christum  uondam  resnrrexiMe  a 
mortuis  sed,  resurrectorum  annunciat. — Lardner,  vol.  4,  p.  368. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  375 


The  Cerinthians, 
The  Valentinians, 
The  Markosians, 
The  Cerdonians, 
The  Marcionites, 
The  Bardisanites, 
The  Origenists, 
The  Hierakites, 
The  Manichees, 


Stand  in  the  long  and  nev- 
er interrupted  succes- 
sion of  Christians  who 
denied  the  Resurrection 
of  Christ. 


I  have  heard  of  one  of  the  most  popular  and  distinguished 
preachers  among  the  Unitarians,  who,  upon  being  homely 
pressed  with  the  question  as  to  where  he  believed  the  body  of 
Jeius  Christ  might  at  this  movient  be,  pointed  with  his  finger 
to  the  turf,  and  looked  vastly  droll,  in  intimation  of  his  con- 
currence in  that  orthodox  belief,  so  sublimely  expressed  in 
the  epitaphs  we  stumble  on  in  Deptford  church-yard: 
against  which,  I  believe  there  never  was  an  infidel  yet, 
who  could  bring  a  rational  objection. 

"  Go  home,  dear  friends,  dry  up  your  tears, 
Here  we  shall  lie,  till  Christ  appears. 
And  when  he  comes  we  hope  to  have 
A  joyful  rising  from  the  grave." 

As  the  whole  amount  of  the  internal  evidence  for  the 
alleged  fact  of  the  Gospel,  it  may  then  be  fairly  stated, 
that  in  contravention  of  the  clear  understanding  of  the 
mystical  nature  of  the  whole  Mythos,  which  those  who 
bear  the  brand  of  heresy  have  given  us— while  a  thousand 
expressions  in  the  writings  of  the  orthodox  themselves 
confirm  that  understanding:  not  so  much  as  any  two  con- 
tinuous sentences  can  be  adduced  from  any  pen  that 
wrote  within  a  hundred  years  of  the  supposed  death  and 
resurrection  of  Christ,  which  are  such  as  any  writer 
whatever  would  have  written,  had  he  himself  believed 
that  such  events  had  really  occurred. 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

THE    WHOLE    OF   THE    EXTERNAL     EVIDENCE    OF    THE 
CHRISTIAN    RELIGION. 

Paley,  in  his  Horse  Paulinse,  with  that  consummate 
ingenuity  which  might  be  expected  from  a  clergyman  who 
could  not  afford  to  have  a  conscience,  has  contrived  to  substi- 
tute a  very  plausible  and  indeed  convincing  evidence  of 
the  existence  and  character  of   Paul  of   Tarsus,   for  a 


376  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

presumptive  evidence  of  the  truth  of  Christianity.  The 
instances  of  evidently-undesigned  coincidence  between  the 
Epistles  of  Paul,  and  the  history  of  him  contained  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  are  indeed  irrefragible :  and  make  out 
the  conclusion  to  the  satisfaction  of  every  fair  inquirer, 
that  neither  those  epistles,  nor  that  part  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  are  suppositious.  The  hero  of  the  one  is 
unquestionably  the  epistoler  of  the  other;  both  writings 
are  therefore  genuine  to  the  full  extent  of  every  thing 
that  they  purport  to  be,  neither  are  the  Epistles  forged, 
nor  is  the  history,  as  far  as  it  relates  to  St.  Paul,  other  than 
a  faithful  and  a  fair  account  of  a  person  who  really  exist- 
ed, and  acted  the  part  therein  ascribed  to  him. 

TESTIMONY    OF    LUCIAN. 

Lucian,  in  his  dialogue  entitled  Philopatris,  speaks  of  a 
Galilean  with  a  bald  forehead  and  a  long  nose,  who  was 
carried,  (or  rather  pretended  that  he  had  been  carried)  to 
the  third  heaven,  and  speaks  of  his  hearers  as  a  set  of 
tatterdemalions  almost  naked,  with  fierce  looks,  and  the 
gait  of  madmen,  who  moan  and  make  contortions;  swear- 
ing by  the  son  who  was  begotten  by  the  father;  predicting 
a  thousand  misfortunes  to  the  empire,  and  cursing  the 
Emperor.  I  have  far  greater  pleasure  in  quoting  the  un- 
exceptionable 

TESTIMONY    OF    LONGINUS. 

Longinus  Dionysius  Cassius,  who  had  been  Secretary 
to  Zenobia  Queen  of  Palmyra,  and  died  a.  d,  273,  in  his 
enumeration  of  the  most  distinguished  characters  of 
Greece;  after  naming  Demosthenes,  Lysias,  jEschines, 
Aristides,  and  others,  concludes,  and  "  add  to  these  Paul 
of  Tarsus,  whom  I  consider  to  be  the  first  setter-forth  of 
an  unproved  doctrine."* 

This  testimony  is,  indeed,  very  late  in  time,  and  extends 
a  very  little  way;  but  let  it  avail  as  much  as  it  may  avail, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  (whether  Christianity  be  received 
or  rejected)  that  Paul  was  a  most  distinguished  and  con- 
spicuous metaphysician,  who  lived  and  wrote  about  the 
time  usually  assigned,  and  that  those  Epistles  which  go 
under  his  name  in  the  New  Testament,  are  in  good  faith, 
(and  even  with  less  alteration  than  many  other  writings  of 
equal  antiquity  have  undergone)  such  as  he  cither  penned 
or  dictated.     Should  any  sincere  and  upright  believer  in 

*nQog  rovxovg  Jlixvi-oi;  o  TuQi^evg  ovruu  xai  nqoirov  fftjftt  nQOiarafityoy  doyfiarog 
avanodnxrov. — Eur.  Magazine. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  377 

the  Christian  religion,  instead  of  reviling  and  insulting"  the 
author  of  this  work,  or  going  about  to  increase  and  extend 
the  horrors  of  that  unjust  imprisonment,  of  which  this 
work  has  been  the  chief  solace — set  himself  ably  and  con- 
scientiously to  the  business  of  showing  that  from  an  admis- 
sion of  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  St.  Paul's 
Epistles,  and  of  the  reality  of  the  character  and  part  as- 
cribed to  him  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  (always  except- 
ing the  miraculous)  the  existence  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a 
man,  and  the  general  credibility  of  the  gospel  history 
would  follow  ;  he  would  deserve  well  of  the  Christian  com- 
munity, and  of  all  men  who  wish  to  see  truth  triumphant 
over  prejudice,  ignorance,  and  error. 

THE    TESTIMONY    OF    PHLEGON. 

This  has  long  ago  been  given  up  as  an  egregious 
monkish  forgery,  no  longer  tenable  ;  nor  indeed  is  it  ever 
adduced  by  our  more  modern  and  rational  divines.  Mr. 
Gibbon,  in  his  caustic  and  expressive  style,  says,  "the 
celebrated  passage  of  Phlegon  is  now  icisely  abandoned  ;"* 
but  as  he  has  not  quoted  it,  and  I  find  it,  standing  its 
ground  in  the  celebrated  Dr.  Clarke's  Evidences  of  Natural 
and  Revealed  Religion,  I  have  thought  it  worthy  of  trans- 
cription in  this  place.     This  it  is, 

"  fin  the  fourth  year  of  the  two  hundred  and  second 
Olympiad,  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  greater  than  any 
ever  known  before  ;  and  it  was  night  at  the  sixth  hour  of 
the  day,  so  that  even  the  stars  appeared,  and  there  was  a 
great  earthquake  in  Bythinia,  that  overthrew  several 
houses  in  Nice." 


THE    PASSAGE    OF    MACROBIUS. 

"  When  Augustus  had  heard  that  among  the  children  in 
Syria,  whom  Herod,  King  of  the  Jews,  had  ordered  to  be 
slain  under  two  years  of  age,  his  own  son  was  also  killed, 
he  remarked  that  it  was  better  to  be  Herod's  hog  than  his 
son."|: 

*  Decline  and  Fall,  chap.  15,  ad  calceni. 

t  TeraQTu}  6'ersi  rrje  SiaxoaioGTijg  SevrtQuq  olvi^ntaSog,  tytviro  tx?.ttnoig  Jj^tow, 
ftiyiari]  Trov  tyvuigtawtviov  nQortqov,  xai  vv%  laqa  eyrt}  Ti^f  tj^icQctg  «j'«»'eTO  loars  xcti 
aartQag  sv  ovQuvai  (pavrjvat,  y.ai  analog. — x.  T.  X. 

X  Cum  audisset  fAugustusj  inter  pueros  quos  in  Syria,  Herodes  rex  Judeeorum 
intra  bimatum  jussit  interfici,  filium  quoque  ejus  occisum,  ait,  "  Melius  est  Herodis 
porcum  esse  quam  filium." — Macrobius,  lib.  2.  c.  4. — Clarke  355. 
33* 


378  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

There  is  no  occasion  to  be  prolix  in  comment  upon  a 
passage,  which  though  urged  by  Dr.  Clarke,  and  some  of 
our  earlier  Christian  evidence  writers,  is  regarded  gene- 
rally by  Christians  themselves  as  somewhat  below  the  line 
of  respectability.  It  is  not  adduced  by  Eusebius  who  is 
ridiculously  diffuse  on  the  slaughter  of  the  children  in 
Bethlehem,*  and  who  would  have  made  much  of  it,  had  it 
been  known  to  him.  The  probability  is,  that  Macrobius 
might  have  recorded,  such  a  saying  of  Augustus,  with  re- 
spect to  some  unnatural  father,  or  even  of  Herod  himself, 
whose  cruelty  to  his  own  family  was  but  little  inferior  to 
that  of  the  evangelical  Constantine  ;  and  some  of  the 
Monkish  Radiurgs,f  or  dexterously-forging  scribes,  might 
have  thought  it  a  good  exploit,  to  fit  it  with  the  occasion. 

The  whole  passage  of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel,  which  re- 
lates the  story  of  the  slaughter  of  the  innocents,  is  mark- 
ed in  the  improved  version  of  the  New  Testament,  as  of 
doubtful  authority  ;  and  is  included  among  some  of  the  facts, 
of  which  the  Unitarian  editors  of  that  version,  say  in  their 
note,  that  they  have  a  fabulous  appearance. 

I  cannot  possibly  treat  this  delicate  subject  with  greater 
delicacy,  than  by  possessing  my  readers  of  the  judgment 
which  a  learned,  intelligent,  and  sincere  believer  in  the 
Christian  religion,  has  passed  upon  it. 

"Josephus  and  the  Roman  historians  give  us  particular 
accounts  of  the  character  of  this  Jewish  king,  whoreceiv- 
^  ed  his  sovereign  authority  from  the  Roman  Emperor,  and 
'  inform  us  of  other  acts  of  cruelty  which  he  was  guilty  of 
in  his  own  family  ;  but  of  this  infamous  inhuman  butchery, 
which  to  this  day  remains  unparralleled  in  the  annals  of 
tyranny,  they  are  entirely  silent.  Under  such  circumstan- 
ces, if  my  eternal  happiness  depended  upon  it,  I  could  not 
believe  it  true.  But  though  I  readily  exclaim  with  Horace, 
non  eg-0,1  I  cannot  add,  as  he  does,  credat  JudcBUs  Jlpella  ;§ 
for  I  am  confident,  there  is  no  Jew  that  reads  this  chapter, 
who  does  not  laugh  at  the  ignorant  credulity  of  those 
professed  Christians, ||  who  receive  such  gross,  palpable 
falsehoods  for  the  inspired  word  of  God,  and  lay  the  foun- 
dation of  their  religion  upon  such  incredible  fictions  as 
these.  "IT 

*  Eccles.  Hist.  lib.  1,  c.  9.  t  FadiovQyot. 

t  JVbf  /.'  §  Let  the  Jew  Apelles  believe  ! 

II  Surely  this  professed  Christian  had  not  the  fear  of  Oakham  before  his  eyea. 
•  IT  Reverend  Edward  Evanson's  Dissonance  of  the  Gospels.  Ed  Ipswich  1792, 
p.  126. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  579 

PUBLIUS    LENTULUS. 

It  was  a  known  custom  of  government,  that  whatever 
of  moment  occurred  in  any  province  of  the  empire,  should 
be  transmitted  in  due  report  from  the  provincial  authorities 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  Roman  Emperor  and  the  Senate. 
Of  this,  the  correspondence  of  the  younger  Pliny  and  the 
emperor  Trajan,  as  well  as  the  natural  and  obvious  neces- 
sity of  the  thing,  is  proof  unquestionable. 

Upon  the  notoriety  of  this  custom,  and  the  self-evident 
inference,  that  it  was  impossible  that  the  Procurator  or  re- 
presentative of  the  Roman  authority  in  Judea,  should  have 
omitted  to  make  a  report  of  the  existence  and  miracles  of 
Jesus  Christ  ;  a  few' years  ago,  the  great  libraries  of  Eng- 
land, France,  Italy,  and  Germany,  pretended  to  possess 
their  several  authentic  copies  of  the  epistle,  in  which 
Publius  Lentulus^  the  supposed  predecessor  of  Pontius  Pilate 
in  the  Province  of  Judea,  was  believed  to  have  written  to 
the  Roman  Senate  a  most  particular  description  of  the 
person  of  Jesus  Christ.* 

It  was  first  found  in  the  History  of  Christ,  as  written  in 
Persic  by  Jeremy  or  Hieronymus  Xavier. 

In  front  of  certain  parchment  manuscripts  of  the  gos- 
pels, written  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  years  ago, 
preserved  in  the  library  at  Jena,  there  is  still  preserved, 
the  following  inscription  : 

"  In  the  time  of  Octavius  Csesar,  Pub'ius  Lentulus,  pro- 
consul in  the  parts  of  Judaea  and  (the  territory)  of  Herod 
the  King,  is  said  to  have  written  this  epistle  to  the  Roman 
Senators,  which  was  afterwards  found  by  Eutropius  in 
the  annals  of  the  Romans."!  This  commentitious  epistle 
was  formerly  edited  among  orthodox  writings,  under  the 
title, — 

"Lentulus,   Prefect  of  Jerusalem,  to  the  Senate  and 

people  of  Rome,  greeting  ; 

"  |At  this  time,  there  hath  appeared,  and  still  lives,  a 

*  All  our  pictures  of  the  handsome  Jew,  present  the  closest  family  likeness  to 
the  Indian  Chrisluia,  and  the  Greek  and  Koman  Apollo.  Had  the  Jewish  text 
been  respected,  he  would  rather  have  been  exhibited  as  hideously  ugly  :  "  his  vis- 
age was  so  marred  more  than  any  man,  and  his  form  more  than  the  sons 
ofmen.^' — Isaiah  Hi.  14.  But  this  would  have  spoiled  the  ornaments  of  the 
church  as  well  as  of  the  theatre,  and  been  fatal  to  the  faith  of  the  fair  sex. — Who 
could  have  believed  in  an  ugly  son  of  God  ? 

t  Temporibus  Octaviani  Caesaris,  Publius  Lentulus  Procos.  in  partibus  Judsea, 
et  Herodis  Regis,  Senatoribus  Romanis,  banc  epistolam  scripsisse  fertur,  quse 
postea  ab  Eutropio  reperta  est  in  annalibus  Romanorum. — Fabricii  Cod.  Apoc. 
torn.  1,  p.  302. 

%  Hoc  tempore  vir  apparoit,    et   adhuc  vivit  vir  praeditus   potentia 


380  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

man  endued  with  great  powers,  whose  name  is  Jesus 
Christ.  Men  say  that  he  is  a  mighty  prophet  ;  his  dis- 
ciples call  him  the  Son  of  God.  He  restores  the  dead  to 
life,  and  heals  the  sick  from  all  sorts  of  ailments  and 
diseases.  He  is  a  man  of  stature,  proportionably  tall, 
and  his  cast  of  countenance  has  a  certain  severity  in  it, 
so  full  of  effect,  as  to  induce  beholders  to  love,  and  yet 
still  to  fear  him.  His  hair  is  of  the  colour  of  wine,  as  far  as 
to  the  bottom  of  his  ears,  without  radiation,  and  straight ; 
and  from  the  lower  part  of  his  ears,  it  is  curled,  down  to 
his  shoulders,  and  bright,  and  hangs  downwards  from 
his  shoulders  ;  at  the  top  of  his  head  it  is  parted  after  the 
fashion  of  the  Nazarines.  His  forehead  is  smooth  and 
clean,  and  his  face  without  a  pimple,  adorned  by  a  certain 
temperate  redness  ;  his  countenance  gentlemanlike  and 
agreeable,  his  nose  and  mouth  nothing  amiss  ;  his  beard 
thick,  and  divided  into  two  bunches,  of  the  same  colour 
as  his  hair  ;  his  eyes  blue,  and  uncommonly  bright.  In 
reproving  and  rebuking  he  is  formidable  ;  in  teaching  and 
exhorting,  of  a  bland  and  agreeable  tongue.  He  has  a 
wonderful  grace  of  person  united  with  seriousness.  No 
one  hath  ever  seen  him  smile,  but  weeping  indeed  they 
have.  He  hath  a  lengthened  stature  of  body  ;  his  hands 
are  straight  and  turned  up,  his  arms  are  delectable  ;  in 
speaking,  deliberate  and  slow,  and  sparing  of  his  conver- 
sation ; — the  most  beautiful  of  countenance  among  the  sons 
of  men." 


THE    VERONICA    HANDKERCHIEF 

Would  not  deserve  a  consideration  among  the  external 
evidences  of  Christianity,  had  it  not  been  consecrated  by 
the  serious  belief  and  earnest  devotion  of  the  largest  body 

nomen  ejus  Jesus  Christus  :  Homines  eum  prophetam  potentera  dicunt,  disci- 
puli  ejus,  filium  Dei  vocant.  Mortuos  vivificat,  et  agros  ab  otnnis  generis 
SBgritudinibus  el  morbis  sanat.  Vir  est  attse  staturse  proportionate,  et  conspectus 
vultus  ejus  cum  severitate,  et  plenus  efficacia,  ut  spectatores  amare  eum  possiiit  et 
rursus  timers.  Pili  capitis  ejus,  vinei  coloris  usque  ad  fundamentum  aurium, 
sine  radiatione  et  erecti,  et  a  fundaniento  aurium  usque  ad  hutneros  contorti,  ac 
lucidi,  et  ab  iiumeris  deorsum  pendentes,  bifido  verticc  dispositi  in  morem  Na- 
zarccorum.  Frons  plana  et  pura,  facies  ejus  sine  macula  quam  rubor  quidam 
teniperatus  ornat.  Aspectus  ejus  ingenuus  et  gratus.  Nasus  et  os  ejus  nullo 
modo  reprehensibilia.  Barba  ejus  nmlta,  et  colore  pilorum  capitis  bifurcata  : 
Oculi  ejus  cserulei  et  extreme  lucidi.  In  reprehendendo  et  objurgando  formi- 
dibilis,  in  docendo  et  exhortando  bhindie  linguiE  et  amabilis.  Gratia  miranda 
vultus,  cum  gravitate.  Vel  seinel  eum  rideutem  nemo  vidit,  sed  flentem  imo. 
Protranta  atatura  corporis,  manus  ejus  rectae,  et  erectae,  brarhia  ejus  delectabilia. 
In  lotiuendo  ponderans  et  gravis,  et  parous  loqnela.     Pulcherrimus  vultu  inter  hotni- 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  381 

and  most  ancient  sect  of  professed  Christians.  T  make  no 
remark  on  the  story,  but  copy  it  as  I  find  it,  in  a  note  of 
the  editor  on  the  text  of  Eusebius,  where  he  relates  the 
story  of  the  correspondence  of  Christ  and  Abgarus.*  "How 
that  Abgarus,  governor  of  Edessa,  sent  liis  letter  unto 
Jesus,  and  withal  a  certain  painter,  who  might  view  him 
well,  and  bring  unto  him  back  again  the  lively  picture  of 
Jesus.  But  the  painter  not  being  able,  for  the  glorious 
brightness  of  his  gracious  countenance,  to  look  at  him  so 
steadily  as  to  catch  his  likeness,  our  Saviour  himself  took 
an  handkerchief,  and  laid  it  on  his  divine  and  lovely  face, 
and  by  wiping  of  his  face,  his  picture  became  impressed  on 
the  handkerchief,  the  which  he  sent  to  Abgarus." 

This  story  the  translator  gives  with  severe  censure  from 
the  historian  Nicephorus,  and  perhaps  it  might  deserve  no 
less  ;  but  that  the  impartial  principle  of  this  Diegesis, 
forbids  our  treating  any  subject  with  levity  or  indiffer- 
ence, that  has  had  power  to  engage  the  impassioned  affec- 
tions and  earnest  devotions  of  so  numerous  and  respectable 
a  portion  of  the  Christian  community. 

I  copy  from  Blount's  Philostratus,  the  annexed  prayer, 
extracted  from  a  Roman  Catholic  Liturgy,  or  manual  of 
true  piety  : 

The  Prayer  to  Veronica.j 

"  Hail  Holy  Face  impressed  on  cloth  !  Purge  us  from 
every  spot  of  vice,  and  join  us  to  the  society  of  the  bless- 
ed ;  0  blessed  Figure  !" 

THE    TESTIMONY    OP    PILATE. 

In  the  same  spirit  of  pious  fraud,  the  Christian  world 
had  for  ages  been  led  to  believe  that  the  governor  Pon- 
tius Pilate  had  sent  to  the  emperor  Tiberius,  an  account 
of  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  ;  which  indeed,  had  such  a 
person  ever  existed,  and  such  an  event  taken  place,  it 
is  next  to  impossible  to  conceive  that  he  should  not  have 
done.  But,  alas,  this  testimony  too,  has  been  swept  away 
by  the  terrible  besom  of  rational  criticism  ;  and  is  now 
left  to  lie  with  that  of  Lentulus,  the  Veronica  handker- 
chief, and  the  Sibylline  t)racles  :  among  the  number  of 

*  Euseb.  Eccles.  Hist.  lib.  1,  c.  14. 

t  The  name  Veronica,  occurs  in  the  Gospel  ofNicodemus,  as  that  of  the  lady 
who  came  behind  Jesus  and  touched  the  hem  of  his  garment.  "  Veronica,  ista 
videter  Uteris  transpositis,  nata  ex  vocabulis  duo  bus,  vera  icon.  Certum  est, 
imaginem  ipsam  Christi,  a  scriptoribus  non  paucis,  dici  Veronicam." — Fah. 
torn.  1,  p.  252. 


382  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  ♦ 

apocryphal  cheats  and  impositions,  which  served  the  pur- 
pose of  imposing  on  generations  which  were  more  easily 
imposed  on,  but  are  rejected  with  disdain  and  disgust  by 
the  increasing  scepticism  even  of  the  most  orthodox  be- 
lievers. 

Our  immediate  grandfathers,  were  required  to  believe 
that  Pontius  Pilate  informed  the  emperor  of  the  unjust 
sentence  of  death  wliich  he  had  pronounced  against  an 
innocent,  and  as  it  appeared,  a  divine  person  ;  and  that 
without  acquiring  the  merit  of  martyrdom,  he  exposed 
himself  to  the  danger  of  it,  that  Tiberius,  who  avowed  his 
contempt  for  all  religion,  immediately  conceived  the  de- 
sign of  placing  the  Jewish  Messiah  among  the  Gods  of 
Rome  ;  that  tiis  servile  senate  ventured  to  disobey  the 
commands  of  their  master  ;  that  Tiberius,  instead  of  re- 
senting their  refusal,  contented  himselfwith  protecting  the 
Christians  from  the  severity  of  the  laws,  many  years  be- 
fore there  were  any  laws  in  existence  that  could  operate 
against  them  ;  and  lastly,  that  the  memory  of  this  extra- 
ordinary transaction  was  preserved  in  the  most  public  and 
authentic  records,  only  those  public  and  authentic  records 
were  never  seen  nor  heard  of  by  any  of  the  persons  to  whose 
keeping  they  were  entrusted,  escaped  the  knowledge  and 
research  of  the  historians  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  were 
only  visible  to  the  eyes  of  an  African  priest,  who  composed 
his  apology  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  after  the  death 
of  Tiberius. 

This  testimony  was  first  asserted  by  that  brave  assertor, 
Justin  Martyr  ;  and  as  a  snowball  loses  nothing  by  rolling, 
has  received  successive  accretions  in  passing  through  the 
hands  of  Tertullian,  Eusebius,  Epiphanias,  Chrysostom, 
and  Ofosius,  till  the  warm  handling  of  modern  criticism 
has  thawed  away  its  unsubstantial  fabric. 

The  faith  of  that  great  father  of  pious  frauds,  Euse- 
bius, upon  this  testimony  glows  into  a  fervour  of  assu- 
rance, which  on  any  other  subject  would  look  like  impu- 
dence. For  after  having  assured  us  on  the  testimony  of 
Tertullian,  that  Tiberius  was  so  convinced  by  the  account 
that  Pilate  had  sent  him,  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
that  he  threatens  death  to  any  person  who  should  but 
bring  an  accusation  against  the  Christians,  when  certainly 
there  were  no  Christians  ;  and  takes  upon  himself  to  in- 
form us,  that  *"  it  was  the  divine  providence,  that  by  way 

*  Tt]g  HQavtH  TTQovoitt?  xat'  oixovoutar  t«t'  avrta  .ifiog  ihv  (iaXXouiftjg ,  me  at 
anafiadoniaTiui  anxa?  e^cov  ivayy^Xts  Xoyog  nayrajfoof  •/>;?  iiaioo^ioi,  lib.  2.  C.  2. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  383 

of  'thanagement,  injected  this  thought  into  the  Emperor's 
mind,  in  order,  that  the  word  of  the  gospel,  having  got  a 
fair  starting,  might  run  throughout  the  whole  world  with- 
out opposition." 

The  probability  of  the  supposed  occasion,  was  sure  to 
bid  for  its  ample  supply  of  forgeries  to  be  fastened  upon 
it : — and  as  Ovid,  having  once  got  the  names  and  circum- 
stances of  either  real  or  imaginary  personages,  given  as 
data,  has  invented  imaginary  speeches  and  epistles  suit- 
able for  such  personages,  under  such  circumstances  to 
have  delivered,  so  Christian  piety  has  supplied  us  with 
stores  of  epistles— not  which  Pilate  wrote,  but  which  he 
may  be  supposed  to  have  written ;  which  for  all  the  au- 
thentication required  in  matters  of  faith,  is  authenti- 
cation enough.  None  but  unbelievers  would  wish  for 
more. 

John  Albert  Fabricius,  has  in  his  Codex  Apocryphus, 
noticed  five  of  these  suppositious  epistles — of  which  one, 
called  the  Anaphora  or  Relation  of  Pilate  to  Tiberius  is 
in  Greek,  and  of  considerable  length,  as  intended  per- 
haps, if  it  had  told,  to  pass  for  a  gospel  :  the  others, 
short  and  in  Latin.  I  have  given  translations  of  them  al- 
ready in  the  22d  number  of  the  first  volume  of  "  The 
Lion." 

The  Anaphora  relates  the  miracles  of  Christ  as  recorded 
in  the  Gospels  ;  but  supplies  one  or  two  additional,  as  cred- 
ible as  any  of  the  rest.  It  does  not  exactly  confirm  the 
account  which  St.  Matthew  gives  us,  and  which  no  Chris- 
tian can  doubt,  that  "i/ie  graves  loere  opened,  and  many  dead 
bodies  of  the  saints  which  slept  arose,  and  came  out  of  the  graves, 
and  loent  into  the  holy  city,  and  appeared  unto  many.''''*  But  it 
entirely  corroborates  the  story  of  the  miraculous  darkness 
at  the  crucifixion,  which  Mr.  Gibbon  handles  with  such 
galling  sarcasm,  merely  because  none  of  the  contemporary 
historians  and  philosophers  have  condescended  to  no- 
tice it. 

"  There  was  darkness  over  the  whole  earth,  the  sun  in 
the  middle  of  the  day  being  darkened,  and  the  stars  ap- 
pearing, among  whose  lights  the  moon  appeared  not, 
but  as  if  turned  to  blood,  it  left  its  shining. "f  This 
additional  circumstance  of  the  moon  being  turned  into 

*  Matthew  xxvii.  52,  53. 

t  Th  >;i(«  uiaov  Ttjg  );ucQag  ayoTta&tvTog,  xoci  Teov  aOTiQiuv  (pavtvTiov,  iv  oif 
XauniSodiv  8x  E(fcciveTo  t]  (rsXijvt;,  to  tftyXog  w?  aifittXi^Haa  ditXintv. — In  adden- 
dis  ad  Fabricii  Codic     Tom.  2,  p.  97. 


384  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

blood,  is  no  exagg-eration,  but  is  supported  by  the  inspired 
testimony  of  St.  Peter  himself,  who  not  only  assures  us 
that  the  moon  icas  turned  into  bloody  but  that  the  whole  uni- 
verse, "  Heaven  above  and  earth  beneath,  presented  one  vast 
exhibition  of  blood,  and  Jirc,  and  vapour  of  smoke.''''*  But 
as  there  must  always  be  as  good  reason  to  believe  in  mira- 
cles of  light,  as  in  miracles  of  darkness,  and  the  resurrec- 
tion of  our  Saviour  was  surely  as  worthy  an  occasion  for 
a  display  of  fire-works  as  his  crucifixion,  Pilate  assured  the 
Emperor  Tiberius,  that  "  early  in  the  morning  of  the  first 
of  the  Sabbaths, f  the  resurrection  of  Christ  was  announced 
by  a  display  of  the  most  astonishing  and  surprising  feats  of 
divine  Omnipotence  ever  performed.  At  the  third  hour 
of  the  night,  the  sun  broke  forth  into  such  splendor  as 
was  never  before  seen,|:  and  the  heaven  became  enlight- 
ened seven  times  more  than  on  any  other  day."§  "And  the 
light  ceased  not  to  shine  all  that  night. "|I  But  the  best 
and  sublimest  part  of  the  exhibition,  as  (with  reverence 
be  it  spoken)  exemplifying  the  principle  of  poetical  justice, 
and  making  a  proper  finale  to  the  scene  was,  that  "  an  in- 
stantaneous chasm  took  place,  and  the  earth  opened  and 
swallowed  up  all  the  unbelieving  Jews,1[  their  temple  and 
synagogues  all  vanished  away  ;  and  the  next  morning 
there  was  not  so  much  as  one  of  them  left  in  all  Jeru- 
salem ;**  and  the  Roman  soldiers  who  had  kept  the  sep- 
ulchre ran  stark-staring  mad."ft  So  truly  may  we 
say,  righteous  art  thou,"0  Lord,  and  just  are  thy  judg- 
ments ! 

Jl  coincident  Passage  from  Jlrnobius. 
Yet  this  language  ascribed  to  Pontius  Pilate,  is  hardly 
less  hyperbolical  than  that  which  the  gravest  and  most 
rational  of  the  Christian  Fathers  is  constrained  to  use, 
when  referring  to  the  same  subject.  It  would  not  bear 
the  telling  in  the  style  of  historical  narrative.  The  calm 
and  philosophical  Lardner  adduces  this  testimony  of  the 
no  loss  philosophical  and  rational  Arnobius,  as  evidence 
of  the  "  unconmion  darkness  and  other   surprising  events 

*  Acts  ii.  19.  t  Oil'iocg  yE)'0,u«i'i;c,  T);c  intag  Ttov  ca^^aitov. 

t  £2(j<''^>j  ife  TQtTt}?  tuQttc:  Tiig  vvxtoc  y;kot?,  oj?  sStnort,  noXXa  (paidQvvag. 

§  iiart  Tov  Bfjuvov  ycvca^ai  (fioraywyov  snTotTtXixaiora,   vniq  naaag  rag  TjfitQai. 

II  ITaaar  Se  vxjxra  ixstvijv,  vx  tnavoaro  to  (fiag  ipaivwv.* — Ibid. 

IT  Tiav  dg  indamv  noXloi  t^oirov  tv  rto  jfatTjuaTi  rtjg  yij?  xaraTtiuStvris,  o»{  fiij 

IVQC&>lVttl  iTl. 

**  Tt]v  avQiov  ro  nXt^Sog  Ttov  leSaiwv  rwv  ra  xcLxa  m  it;aB  Xtyo/tejtw. 

Miu  nvvayvtyij  rwv  ludaiuw  nx  v7iik>j(fiSr]  iii  avrij  r»;  In^nouXi^fi. 

ft  Ot  dt  TTjoHirig  TO  fivtificiov  aTQUTiwTui  tv  ixraaei  ytvOjitetot. — x.  T.^.— -Ibid. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  385 

at  the  time  of  our  Lord's  passion  and  death."*  That 
evidence  requires  us  to  believe  that,  "when  he  had  put 
off  his  body,  which  he  carried  about  in  a  Httle  part  of 
himself,  after  he  suffered  himself  to  be  seen,  and  that  it 
should  be  known  of  what  size  he  was,  all  the  elements  of 
the  world,  terrified  at  the '  strangeness  of  what  had  hap- 
pened, were  put  out  of  order,  the  earth  shook  and  trem- 
bled, the  sea  was  completely  poured  out  from  its  lowest 
bottom,  the  whole  atmosphere  was  rolled  up  into  balls  of 
darkness,  the  fiery  orb  of  the  sun  itself  caught  cold  and  shiv- 
ered.'" f  Our  Christian  Evidence  writers  are  not  able  to 
adduce  so  much  as  a  single  author,  friend  or  foe,  Pagan  or 
Christian,  who  has  referred  to  these  miraculous  events  in 
any  way  of  which  they  themselves  are  not  ashamed :  not 
one  who  has  related  the  story  as  if  he  believed  it  himself 
— not  one,  who,  however  in  some  passages  he  may  seem 
to  speak  as  an  historian,  has  not  in  others  abundantly  indi- 
cated a  double  sense,  and  shown  his  own  secret  understand- 
ing, not  only  that  no  such  events  ever  happened,  but  that 
no  such  person  as.  he  of  whom  they  are  related,  ever 
existed. 


JOSEPHUS,   A.    D.    93. 

T.  Flavins  Josephus,  a  Jewish  priest  of  the  race  of  the 
Asmonean  princes,  was  born  at  Jerusalem,  taken  prisoner 
by  Vespasian  in  his  wars,  was  present  in  his  camp  at  the 
siege  of  Jerusalem,  and  wrote  a  work  on  the  Jewish  An- 
tiquities, in  twenty  books,  in  the  eighteenth  of  which,  the 
third  chapter,  and  third  section,  occurs  the  famous  pas- 
sage.    This  it  is : — 

"I  About  that  time  appeared  Jesus,  a  wise  man,  if  in- 
deed it  be  right  to  speak  of  him  as  a  man,  for  he  was  a 
performer  of  wonderful  works,  a  teacher  of  such  men  as 
receive  the  truth  with  pleasure.     He  drew  after  him  many 

*  Lardner,  vol.  2,  p.  255. 

t  Exutus  at  corpore,  quod  m  exigua  sui  circumferebat  parte,  postquam  videri  se 
passus  est,  cujus  esset  aut  magnitudinis  sciri,  novitate  rerum  exterrita  mundi  sunt 
,  elementa  turbata,  tellus  mota  contremuit,  mare  funditus  refusum  est :  aer  globis 
'  iiivolutua  est  tenebraram,  igneus  orbis  solis  tepefacto  ardore  diriguit. — p.  32. 

t  Tirtrai  Se  xara  xovtov  jov  xqovov  Itjoovg,  aofog  avtjQ,  tiye  avSqa  avTov  Xsysiv 
XQ^  •  "!*■  y"?  TtaQixSoiUiv  tQymv  TroiTjTt;?,  Stdaaxalo?  av&QOJTtvjv  Tcov  i]6ot'ij  r'  aktj-9t] 
^£jfO|itet'B)v.  Kai  TtoXXovg  /ittr  lovSaiovg,  Ttokkov?  Si  rot  tkXtjvixov  snriyayiro.  O 
Xqioxo?  ovrog  rjv.  Kai  avrov  trSti^ti  rwv  ttqoitwv  avSquiv  naq'  ij^iur,  aravQoj  tnirt- 
rifitjxorog  IIiXaTov,  ovx  enavaavro  oiye  to  nqiurov  aviov  ayanrjaavrsg.  Etpavt;  yaq 
avroig,  rQirtjv  tjucQav  txiov,  nui.iv  Zwv  Twv  ■9tiwv  ndofrjxusv  xavxaxt,  xai  aUXa 
ftvQitt  Ttsqi  auTou  ■9»v^aaia,  iiQtjKOxmv,  EiOsxizt  vov,  xmv  XQiaxiuvmv,  uno  rovSt 
mvonaauivmv,  ovx  tjiiXntt  to  tpvXov. 

34 


386.  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

of  the  Jews,  as  well  as  of  the  Gentiles.  This  same  was 
the  Christ.  And  though  Pilate,  by  the  judgment  of  the 
chief  rulers  among  us,  delivered  him  to  be  crucified,  those 
who  from  the  first  had  loved  him,  fell  not  from  him,  for  to 
them  at  least,  he  showed  himself  again  alive  on  the  third 
day  :  this,  and  ten  thousand  other  wonderful  things  being 
what  the  holy  prophets  had  foretold  concerning  him ;  so 
that  the  Christian  people,  who  derive  their  name  from  him, 
have  not  yet  ceased  to  exist." 

This  passage  was  first  quoted  by  Eusebius,  who  exults 
over  it  as  if  he  had  found  a  prodigious  prize.  His  exulta- 
jtion  itself  only  serving  to  awaken  suspicion  in  every  crit- 
ical mind,  that  the  passage  is  but  another  added  to  the 
long  list  of  his  own  most  audacious  forgeries^  as  he  immedi- 
ately subjoins — "  Wherefore,  since  this  Hebrew  historian 
hath  of  old  delivered  these  things  in  his  own  writing,  con- 
cerning our  Saviour,  what  evasion  can  save  those  who 
invent  arguments  against  these  things,  from  standing  con- 
victed of  downright  impudence."* 

Yet  for  all  this  terrible  defiance,  the  most  unquestionably 
orthodox  and  best  learned  of  the  whole  Christian  world, 
have  invented  arguments  against  the  validity  of  this  pas- 
sage, and  have  shown  to  absolute  demonstration  the  cer- 
tainty that  Josephus  did  not  write  this  passage,  and  the 
probability  that  Eusebius  himself  did. 

Mr.  .Gibbon  in  his  style  of  most  significant  double- 
throiving,  has  a  note,  admonishing  us  that  "  the  passage 
concerning  Jesus  Christ  was  inserted  into  the  text  of 
Josephus,  between  the  time  of  Origen  and  that  of  Euse- 
bius, and  may  furnish  us  with  an  example  of  no  vulgar 
forgery."! 

No  vulgar  forgery  indeed !  the  cool  calculating  wicked- 
ness, the  reckless  impiety,  the  matchless  impudence  of 
this  detected  forgery,  should  indeed  serve  us  as  an 
example,  how  to  trust  and  how  to  respect  Christian 
testimony.  Appended  as  this  note  is,  to  Mr.  Gibbon's 
admission  of  the  respect  due  to  the  celebrated  passage  of 
Tacitus ;  to  what  other  sense  can  it  be  read,  than  as  a  hint 
that  Mr.  Gibbon  had  no  mind  to  run  first  in  the  dangerous 
business  of  analysing  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion.    That  work  must  be  left  to  Christians  themselves,  and 

*  Tavra  xov  e?  avxiov  t^Qaimv  avyygayews  avtxaStv  rtj  eouTOV  yQaipj],  niQt   .  . 
...   .   .' rov  aurrtiQO?  rjuwv  7taQaStSu}xarog,  ri?  av  «Tt  Xttnoiro  aTCOfvytl  Tov  /t^ 
avatoxwToig,  rotg  xara  nXanufitvoig  vTCOi.ivtifiara.—^Sequenti  conuiutte. 
t  Declino  and  Fall,  chap.  16. 


EXTERNAL     EVIDENCE.  387 

as  no  Lardner  has  yet  given  us  leave  to  take  the  same 
hberty  with  the  passage  of  Tacitus,  "  the  most  sceptical 
criticism"  is  obliged  to  respect  its  integrity.  But  it  will 
fall  in  its  turn.  The  fate  of  the  Sibylline  oracles:  of  the 
forged  admissions  of  Porphyry :  of  the  correspondence  of 
Christ  and  Abgarus  :  of  the  testimony  of  Phlegon  :  of  the 
letter  to  Tiberius :  of  the  monument  to  Nero :  and  of  all 
other  wicked  devices  that  served  the  turn  of  imposing  on 
the  weakness  of  our  forefathers,  but  will  serve  no  longer  ; 
awaits  it.  But  a  few  years  ago,  and  the  author  who  had 
suggested  a  suspicion  against  the  genuineness  of  the  pas- 
sage in  Josephus,  if  he  had  happily  escaped  the  horrors  of 
a  twelvemonths'  imprisonment,  must  at  least  have  reck- 
oned on  having  to  sustain  his  full  share  of  that  abuse 
and  hatred,  with  which  the  ignorant  part  of  the  world, 
which  is  unfortunately  the  greatest  part,  has  generally 
rewarded  the  wisest  and  best  men  that  ever  lived  in  it. — 
But  conviction  has  thus  far  forced  itself  upon  the  mind  of 
the  highest  authority  which  Christians  themselves  can  ap- 
peal to.  Their  own  all-deciding  Dr.  Lardner  has  pronoun- 
ced this  passage  to  be  an  interpolation.* 

It  is  rejected  also  by  Ittigius,  Blondell,  Le  Clerc,  Van- 
dale,  Bishop  Warburton,  and  Tanaquil  Faber. 

This  latter  author  suspects  that  Eusebius  himself  was 
the  author  of  the  interpolation.  What  then  must  we  think 
of  Eusebius  ? 

We  have  already  seen  that  Eusebius  is  the  sheet-anchor 
of  reliance  for  all  we  know  of  the  three  first  centuries  of 
the  Christian  history.  What  then  must  we  think  of  the 
three  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  history  ? 

An  author  who  would  deliberately,  and  with  his  own 
hand,  forge  a  testimony,  and  foist  it  into  the  writings  of 
another  who  never  did,  and  probably  never  would,  have 
borne  any  such  testimony  ;  and  then  quote  his  own  known 
lie,  as  a  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  and 
deal  out  his  anathemas  against  all  who  should  presume  to 
question  it — What  would  he  not  have  forged  ?  What 
must  not  he  himself  have  thought  of  the  real  nature  and 
merits  of  a  cause  that  needed  to  be  supported  by  such 
means  .''  It  is  curious  to  see,  how  even  after  the  defini- 
tive judgment  of  such  high  and  confessedly  orthodox    au- 

*  I  have  published  these  arguments  iu  my  Forty-fourth,  and  ako  in  my  Ninetieth 
Oration,  delivered  before  the  Areopagus  of  the  Christian  FA'idence  Society,  a  few 
weeks  before  the  commencemeut  of  the  persecution  which  has  afforded  me  leisure 
for  these  researches. 


388  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

thorities,  we  are  still  occasionally  pestered  with  puerile  or 
petulant  last  dying-  struggles,  to  rescue  this  holy  cheat  from 
the  sentence  passed  upon  it — 

For  faith,  fanatic  faith,  once  wedded  fast 
To  some  dear  falsehood,  hugs  it  to  the  last. 

We  are  required  to  give  a  wholly  different  reading  to 
the  passage ;  to  introduce  imaginary  parentheses,  to  make 
arbitrary  omissions  ;  or  egregiously  to  mistranslate  it:  and 
tims  forsooth  to  chisel  it  into  a  supposable  possibility  that 
Josephus  might  have  written  it. 

Among  the  illustrious  who  have  argued  in  this  way,  are 
Dr.  Samuel  Chandler,  Dr.  Nathaniel  Foster,  Mr.  Henley, 
Mr.  Bryant,*  the  Abl3e  de  Voisin,  and  the  Abbe  Bullet. 
But  the  learned  biographer  of  Lardner,  in  his  life  affixed 
to  the  quarto  edition  of  his  works,  justly  concludes,  "  Of 
what  avail  can  it  be  to  produce  a  testimony  so  doubtful 
in  itself,  and  which  some  of  the  ablest  advocates  for  the 
truth  of  the  Gospel,  reject  as  an  interpolation."! 

Dr.  Lardner,  after  having  thoroughly  weighed  all  the 
arguments  that  could  be  adduced  in  its  favour,  strenuously 
defends  his  former  opinion,  that  the  passage  is  an  inter- 
polation. "  It  ought  therefore  to  be  for  ever  discarded  from 
any  place  among  the  evidences  of  Christianity."  | 

Dr.  Lardner's  arguments  against  the  passage,  in  his  own 
words,  are  these : 

1 .  "  I  do  not  perceive  that  we  at  all  want  the  suspected 
testimony  to  Jesus,  which  was  never  quoted  by  any  of  our 
Christian  ancestors  before  Eusebius.  § 

2.  "  Nor  do  I  recollect  that  Josephus  has  any  where 
mentioned  the  name  or  word  Christ,  in  any  of  his  works ; 
except  the  testimony  above  mentioned,  and  the  passage 
concerning  James  the  Lord's  brother.  || 

3.  "  It  interrupts  the  narrative. 

4.  "The  language  is  quite  Christian. 

5.  "It  is  not  quoted  by  Chrysostom,!"  though  he  often 
refers  to  Josephus,  and  could  not  have  omitted  quoting  it, 
had  it  been  then,  in  the  text. 

6.  "It  is  not  quoted  by  Photius,  though  he  has  three 
articles  concerning  Josephus. 

*  In  his  Vindicia;  Flaviana;,  or  a  Vindication  of  the  Teatimony  given  by  Jose- 
phus concerning  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  1777. 

t  Life  of  Dr.  Lardner,  by  Dr.  Kippis,  p.  23.  $  Ibid,  23. 

§  His  Answer  to  Dr.  Chandler.  II  Ibid. 

IT  John,  I5ishop  of  Constantinople,  who  died  A.  D.  407,  was  called  St.  Chryso^ 
toni,  or  (iolden-niouthed,  from  the  charms  of  his  eloquence — the  author  of  the 
last  prayer  in  our  Liturgy. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  389 

7.  "  Under  the  article  Justus  of  Tiberias,  this  author 
(Photius)  expressly  states  that  this  historian  (Josephus) 
being  a  Jew,  has  not  taken  the  least  notice  of  Christ. 

8.  "  Neither  Justin  in  his  dialogue  with  Trypho  the 
Jew,  nor  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  who  made  so  many  ex- 
tracts from  ancient  authors,  nor  Origen  against  Celsus, 
have  ever  mentioned  this  testimony. 

9.  "  But  on  the  contrary,  in  Chapter  xxxv.  of  the  first 
book  of  that  work,  Origen  openly  affirms,  that  Josephus 
who  had  mentioned  John  the  Baptist,  did  not  acknowledge 
Christ. 

Dr.  Lardner  was  anxious  to  have  studied  the  defence 
set  up  for  this  passage  by  the  Abbe  Bullet,  which  it  seems 
never  came  to  his  hands.  Of  this  defence,  the  chief  ar- 
guments, in  its  own  words,  are — 

1.  "That  Josephus  could  not  be  ignorant  that  there 
had  appeared  in  Judea,  a  charlatan,  impostor,  magician, 
or  prophet,  called  Jesus,  who  had  either  performed  won- 
ders, or  found  the  secret  of  persuading  numbers  to  think  so. 

2.  "  That  he  ought  to  have  taken  some  notice  of  Jesus 
and  his  disciples;  and  that 

3.  "  Because  Suetonus  and  Tacitus  have  done  so. 

4.  "  Because,  he  has  given  an  accurate  account  of  all 
the  impostors,  or  heads  of  parties  which  arose  amongst 
the  Jews,  from  the  empire  of  Augustus,  to  the  ruin  of 
Jerusalem. 

6.  "  Because,  the  faith  of  history  required  that  the 
existence  of  Jesus  and  his  disciples  should  not  be  passed 
over  in  silence;"  and 

Hence  it  is  inferred  that  Josephus  must  have  written 
this  passage:  and  its  not  being  found  by  any  of  the 
fathers  before  Eusebius,  is  to  be  accounted  for,  by  the 
supposition  (a  pretty  fair  one)  that  Josephus  himself 
might  have  published  two  distinct  editions  of  his  works, 
inserting  the  passage  in  that  edition,  which  came  to  the 
hand  of  Eusebius,  but  omitting  it  in  all  others. 

So  struggles  conquered  sophistry  against  victorious 
truth. 


THE    CELEBRATED    INSCRIPTION    TO    NERO. 

As  long  as  it  would  do — and  criticism,  afraid  of  losing 

its  ears  in  the   pillory,  was   constrained   to  whisper  its 

discoveries  in  a  corner,  and  vent  its  secret  sentiment,  in 

"  curses  not  loud  but  deep,"  the  evidences  of  the  Christian 

34* 


390  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

religion,  boasted  of  the  celebrated  inscription  on  a  public 
monument,  erected  at  the  time  of  the  events  it  recorded, 
and  still  preser.ved;  ascribing-  to  the  emperor  Nero,  the 
praise  of  having-  purged  the  province  of  Spain,  in  which  it 
was  situated,  from  those  who  in  his  times,  were  labouring 
to  inculcate  a  new  superstition. 

So  that  here  were  all  the  marks  of  genuineness  which 
Mr.  Leslie  in  his  iShort  and  Easy  Method  with  Deists, 
maintains  to  be  sufficient  to  demonstrate  an  utter  impossi- 
bility of  imposture,  in  any  document  in  which  they  are 
found  concurring.  This  celebrated  inscription  is  published 
by  the  learned  Gruterus  in  the  first  volume  of  his  Inscrip- 
tions, p.  238,  is  copied  by  Dr.  Lardner  from  Gruter,*  and 
is  by  the  learned  Pagi,  and  other  no  less  learned  advocates 
of  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion,  vindicated  by 
arguments  quite  as  learned,  as  ingenious  and  as  convinc- 
ing, as  any  that  have  hitherto  been  adduced  for  the  equal- 
ly veracious  testimonies  of  Josephus  and  Tacitus.  The 
inscription  is, 

NERONI    CLAVDIO    CAESARI    AVG    PONT    MAX 

OB    PROVING.    LATRONIB. 

ET    HIS    QVI    NOVAM 

GENERI    HVM.    SVPER 

STITIONEM    INCVLCAB. 

PVRGATAM. 

i.  e.  "  To  Claudius  Cajsar  Nero  Augustus  Supreme  Pon- 
tiff. In  honour  of  the  province  having  been  purged  from 
thieves,  and  from  those  who  were  endeavouring  to  teach 
the  human  race  a  new  superstition."  Subaudi — no  better 
than  thieves.  I  particularly  wi^h  to  engage  the  reader's 
consideration  to  the  homogeneity  of  character  which  this 
celebrated  inscription  presents,  to  the  still  more  celebrated 
passage  of  Tacitus.  Apply  the  one,  an  undoubted  and 
unquestionable  imposture,  as  a  test  of  comparison  to  the 
other. 

The  example  of  this  passage  demonstrates  these  corol- 
laries:— 

1 .  That  Christian  forgers  were  very  heedful  to  forge  in 
keeping  and  character;  and 

2.  That  in  falsely  representing  what  their  enemies  might 
have  been  supposed  to  have  said  of  them,  they  suited  the 
supposition  to  the  person;  and 

*  Lardner,  vol.  iii.  p.  609. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  391 

3.  Rather  overdid  the  representation  for  the  better  mak- 
ing sure  against  being  suspected  of  being  the  authors  of  it 
themselves. 

4.  Reviling  and  decrying  themselves,  in  rather  stronger 
terms  than  their  enemies  would  have  been  likely  to  use 
against  them. 

5.  Thus  they  would  contentedly  be  put  on  a  level  with 
thieves,  and  have  their  divine  religion  spoken  of  as  some- 
thing that  o\ight  to  be  purged  out  of  society;  for  the  sake 
of  making  the  testimony,  which  they  had  forged  them- 
selves, the  more  plauvsibly  seem  to  be,  the  testimony  of 
their  enemies. 

6.  They,  holding  it  better  to  be  spoken  of  in  any  way,, 
than  not  to  be  spoken  of  at  all;  and 

7.  The  specific  object  and  aim  of  the  forgery,  not  being 
to  represent  what  the  character  of  Christianity  was; 
(which  they  could  easily  and  at  any  time  vindicate,)  but 

8.  To  represent  Christians  and  Christianity  to  have  ex- 
isted, ichen  and  xohere  they  did  not  exist,  to  have  had  an  ex- 
tent of  prevalence  which  it  had  not,  and  to  have  been 
of  a  degree  of  consequence  and  notoriety,  as  distinct  from 
any  of  the  multifarious  modifications  of  the  ancient  Pa- 
ganism, from  which  in  fact  and  truth  it  was  neither  dis- 
tinct, nor  distinguishable. 

But  this  celebrated  inscription  has  at  length  served  its 
generation;  and  it  is  now  no  longer  indictable  at  common 
law,  to  own  the  truth  with  respect  to  it,  and  pack  it  off 
with  Josephus,  Lentulus,  Pilate,  Phlegon,  and  all  the  whole 
noble  army  of  martyrs.  The  distinguished  Spanish  histori- 
an, John  de  Ferreras,  has  escaped  the  inquisition,  though 
he  has  ventured  to  own  that  he  could  not  restrain  himself 
from  confessing,*  "  that  it  was  even  Cyriac  of  Ancona, 
who  first  foisted  this  bit  of  Christian  evidence  upon  hu- 
man credulity;  and  that  it  was  from  his  brewing,  that  all 
the  rest  of  'em  filled  their  vessels,  but  now  happily  any 
one  may  judge  of  it  as  he  pleases." 

This  allowance  has  emboldened  Mr.  Gibbon,  who  shows 
in  a  note  that  he  has  read  the  passage  of  Ferreras,  to 
fling   stones    at  this   inscription,    and    to    say  "it   is   a 

*  Je  ne  puis  m'empecher  d'observer  que  Cyriac  d'Ancone  fut  le  premier  qui 
publia  cette  inscription,  et  que  c'est  de  lui  que  les  autres  I'ont  tiree;  mais  comme  la 
foi  de  cet  Ecrivain  estsuspecte  au  jugement  dc  tous  les  sgavans,  que  d'ailleurs  il  n'y 
a  ni  vestige  ni  souvenir  de  cette  inscription  dans  les  places  on  I'ont  dit  qu'elle  s'est 
trouvee,  et  qu'on  ne  scait  ou  la  prendre  a  present,  chacun  peut  en  porter  le  juge- 
ment qu'il  voudra. — Histoire  generate  d'Espagne,  torn.  1,  p.  192. 


392  EXTERNAL   EVIDENCE. 

manifest  and  acknowledged  forgery,  contrived  by  that 
noted  impostor,  Cyriacus  of  Ancona,  to  flatter  the  pride 
and  prejudices  of  the  Spaniards."*  He  would  have  said 
as  much  of  the  passage  of  Tacitus,  had  he  but  found 
another  John  de  Ferreras,  to  pioneer  his  way  through  the 
brake. 


SIMILAR    INSCRIPTIONS. 

While  the  lie  would  do,  nothing  was  so  common  or  so 
natural  as  that  it  should  be  often  overdone.  The  advo- 
cates for  Christianity  once  meeting  a  little  success  in  this 
way,  would  turn  every  mile-stone  on  the  roads  into  a  mon- 
ument of  Christianity.  More  than  a  copy  would  be  more 
than  the  worth  of  these  to  the  emperors  Diocletian  and 
Maximinian.  They  rest  like  that  to  Nero,  on  the  faith  of 
Baronius. 

1.  DIOCLET.  JOVIUS.  MAXIMI.  HERCULEI.  CAESS.  AUGG. 
AMPLIFICATO  PER.  ORIENTEM.  ET.  OCCID.  IMPER.  ROM.  ET. 
NOMINE    CHRISTIANORUM.  DELETO.    QUI.    REMP.    EVERTEBANT; 

and 

2.  diocletian  caes.  aug.  gallerio.  in  oriente  adopt 
superstitione  christi.  ubiqv.  deleta  cultu  deorum 
propagato. 

Procopius  mentions  a  Phoenician  inscription  upon  two 
famous  pillars  near  Tangiers,  which  was, 

Hiiti?  oaf.iiv  01  (fvi-ovxtg  ano  nQooionov  IfiOov  rov  X.y]arov  viov  Navti. — i.  e. 

"  We  are  they  who  Jied  from  the  face  of  Joshua  the  robber,  the 
son  of  JVun.''^ 

Thus  have  we  not  only  forged  writings,  but  pretended 
monuments  that  never  existed,  to  record  events  that  never 
happened.  So  reckless,  so  desperate,  so  audacious  are 
the  tricks  that  have  been  resorted  to,  to  give  to  Bible 
Skiology,  an  appearance  of  historical  fact;  that  is,  to  bring 
heaven  and  earth  together. 


TACITUS,   A.  D.  107. 

We  have  investigated  the  claims  of  every  document 
possessing  a  plausible  claim  to  be  investigated,  which 
history  has  preserved  of  the  transactions  of  the  first 
century;  and  not  so  much  as  one  single  passage,  purport- 

*  Gibbon,  chap.  16. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  393 

ing-  to  have  been  written  at  any  time  within  the  first  hun- 
dred years,  can  be  produced  from  any  independent  author- 
ity whatever,  to  show  the  existence  at  or  before  that  time 
of  sucTi  a  person  as  Jesus  Christ,  or  of  such  a  set  of  men 
as  could  be  accounted  to  be  his  disciples. 

After  the  many  forgeries  and  interpolations  that  have 
been  detected  in  the  texts  of  authors  of  high  repute,  nay 
the  forging  of  whole  books  and  palming  them  upon  authors 
of  established  reputation,  for  the  purpose  of  kidnapping 
their  respectability  into  the  service  of  Christianity,  and 
fathering  them  with  admissions,  which  they  never  made 
nor  intended  ;  it  would  have  been  next  to  a  miracle,  if  the 
text  of  the  great  prince  of  historians,  had  been  suffered  to 
come  down  to  us  unengrafted  with  a  suitable  recognition 
of  the. existence  of  Christ,  and  of  Christians  :  or  if,  after, 
the  shrewdest  talent  and  profoundest  learning  were  en- 
gaged in  the  service,  the  important  business  of  managing 
such  an  interpolation  had  been  left  to  hands  that  could  not 
have  done  it  better  than  to  fear  detection  from  any  ordi- 
nary powers  of  criticism. 

Eusebius  had  christianized  Josephus  ;  it  remained  for 
shrewder  masters  of  criticism,  and  the  more  accomplished 
scholars  and  infidels  of  a  later  age  to  perform  a  similar  re- 
generation upon  the  text  of  Tacitus. 

This  illustrious  Roman  inherits  immortal  renown  as  an 
historian,  for  his  beautitlil  description  of  the  manners  of 
the  ancient  Germans,  his  Life  of  Agricola,  his  History  of 
Rome,  from  the  time  of  the  emperor  Galba  to  the  death 
of  Domitian  ;  and  lastly  for  his  Annals,  beginning  at 
Tiberius,  and  terminating  with  the  death  of  Nero.  He 
was  born  about  a.  d.  62,  and  wrote  his  Annals  very  late  in 
life,  as  nearly  as  probable  conjecture  can  bring  us,  about 
A.  D.  107. 

The  first  publication  of  any  part  of  the  Annals  of 
Tacitus,  was  by  Johannes  de  Spire,  at  Venice,  in  the 
year  1468.  His  imprint  being  made  from  a  single  manu- 
script, in  his  own  power  and  possession  only,  and  purport- 
ing to  have  been  written  in  the  eighth  century.  From 
this  manuscript,  which  none  but  the  most  learned  would 
know  of,  none  but  the  most  curious  would  investigate,  and 
none  but  the  most  interested  would  transcribe,  or  be 
allowed  to  transcribe  ;  and  that  too,  in  an  age  and 
country,  when  and  where,  to  have  suggested  but  a  doubt 
against  the  authenticity  of  any  document  which  the 
authorities  had    once   chosen   to   adopt    as  evidence   of 


394  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

Christianity,  would  have  subjected  the  conscientious  scep- 
tic to  the  faggot ;  from  f/w's,  all  other  manuscripts  and 
printed  copies  of  the  works  of  Tacitus  are  derived  :  and 
consequently  in  the  forty-fourth  section  of  the  fifteenth 
book  of  these  Annals,  we  have 

THE    CELEBRATED    PASSAGE. 

After  a  description  of  the  terrible  fire  at  Rome  in  the 
tenth  of  Nero,  and  the  sixty-fourth  of  our  Lord,  in  which 
a  large  part  of  the  city  was  consumed  ;  and  an  account  of 
the  order  given  for  rebuilding  and  beautifying  it,  and  the 
methods  used  to  appease  the  anger  of  the  Gods  :  Tacitus 
adds,*  ''  But  neither  all  the  human  help,  nor  the  liberality 
of  the  Emperor,  nor  all  the  atonements  presented  to 
the  Gods,  availed  to  abate  the  infamy  he  lay  under  of 
having  ordered  the  city  to  be  set  on  fire.  To  suppress, 
therefore,  this  common  rumour,  Nero  procured  others  to 
be  accused,  and  inflicted  exquisite  punishments  upon 
those  people  who  were  held  in  abhorrence  for  their  crimes, 
and  wei'e  commonly  knoivn  by  the  name  of  Christians. 
They  had  their  denomination  from  Christus,  who^  in  the  reign  of 
Tiberius,  was  put  to  death  as  a  criminal  by  the  procurator 
Pontius  Pilate.  This  pernicious  superstition,  though 
checked  for  awhile,  broke  out  again,  and  spread,  not  over 
JuDEA,  THE  SOURCE  of  this  cvil,  but  reached  the  city 
also  :  whither  flow  from  all  quarters  all  things  vile  and 
shameful,  and  where  they  find  shelter  and  encouragement. 
At  first,  they  only  were  apprehended  who  confessed  them- 
selves of  that  sect ;  afterwards,  a  vast  multitude  discovered 
by  them  ;  all  which  were  condemned,  not  so  much  for  the 
crime  of  burning  the  city,  as  for  their  enmity  to  man- 
kind.    Their  executions  were  so  contrived  as  to  expose 

*  "  Sed  non  ope  humana,  non  largitionibus  Principis,  aut  Deum  placaraen- 
tis,  decedebat  infamia,  quin  jussurn  incendium  crederetur.  Ergo  abolendo 
rumori  Nero  subdidlt  reos,  et  quresitissimis  pcenis  adfecit,  quos  per  flagitia  in- 
visos,  vuJgus  CArisiianos  appellabat.  Auctor  noininis  ejus  Christus,  Tiberio 
iinperitante,  per  procuratorein  Pontiuni  Pilatuin  supplicio  adfectus  ernt.  Re- 
pressaque  in  pnEsens  exitiabilis  superstitio  rursus  erumpebat  non  niodo  per  Ju- 
dccain,  originem  ejus  mail,  sed  per  Urbeni  etiain,  quo  cuncta  undique  atrocia, 
aut  pudenda,  confluunt,  celebranturque.  Igitur  prima  correpti  qui  fatobantur, 
deinde  indicio  eorutn,  multitude  ingens,  baud  perinde  in  crimine  incendii,  quam 
odio  huinani  generis,  convicti  sunt.  Et  per<3untibus  addita  ludibria,  ut  ferarum 
tergis  contecti,  laniatu  canum  interirent,  aut  crucibus  allixi,  aut  flaniniandi, 
atque  ubi  defecisset  dies,  in  usurn  nocturtii  iuiiiinis  urerentur.  Hortos  sues  ei 
spectaculo  Nero  obtulerat,  et  Circense  ludicruni  edebat,  babitu  aurigce  permixtua 
plebi,  vel  curriculo  insistens.  Unde  quamquam  adversus  sontes  et  novissima  ex- 
empla  ineritos,  miseratio  oriebatur,  tanniuam  non  utiiitatc  publica,  sed  in  seevitiam 
'  uniusabsuinerentur." 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  395 

them  to  derision  and  contempt.  Some  were  covered  over 
with  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  and  torn  to  pieces  by  dogs  ; 
some  were  crucified  :  others,  having-  been  daubed  over 
with  combustible  materials,  were  set  up  as  lights  in  the 
night-time,  and  thus  burned  to  death.  Nero  made  use 
of  his  own  gardens  as  a  theatre  on  this  occasion,  and  also 
exhibited  the  diversions  of  the  Circus,  sometimes  stand- 
ing in  the  crowd  as  a  spectator,  in  the  habit  of  a  chariot- 
eer ;  at  other  times  driving  a  chariot  himself ;  till  at  length 
these  men,  though  really  criminal  and  deserving  exempla- 
ry punishment,  began  to  be  commisserated  as  people  who 
were  destroyed,  not  out  of  regard  to  the  public  welfare, 
but  only  to  gratify  the  cruelty  of  one  man." 

I  consider  this  celebrated  passage  to  be  a  forgery  or 
interpolation  upon  the  text  of  Tacitus,  from  no  disposi- 
tion, I  am  sure,  to  give  offence  to  those  who  may  have  as 
good  reasons,  and  probably  better,  for  esteeming  it  to  be 
unquestionably  genuine,  from  no  wish  to  deduct  from 
Christianity  one  tittle  or  iota  of  its  fair  or  probable  evi- 
dence, but  from  a  consideration  solely  of  the  facts  of  the 
case,  which  I  here  subjoin  ;  and  which,  if  they  shall  have 
less  weight  in  the  judgment  of  the  reader  than  of  the 
author  :  the  reader  will  reap  the  advantage  of  holding 
the  opposite  conclusion,  not  only  in  concurrence  with  the 
decision  of  the  wisest  and  best  men  in  the  world,  but  on 
that  surer  ground  of  satisfaction  with  which  every  con- 
viction is  held,  after  men,  have  been  so  faithful  to  them- 
selves as  to  weigh  the  objections  that  can  be  alleged 
against  it. 

The  facts  of  the  case  are  these — 

1 .  This  passage,  which  would  have  served  the  purpose 
of  Christian  quotation  better  than  any  other  in  all  the 
writings  of  Tacitus,  or  of  any  Pagan  writer  whatever,  is 
not  quoted  by  any  of  the  Christian  Fathers. 

2.  It  is  not  quoted  by  Tertullian,  though  he  had  read 
and  largely  quotes  the  works  of  Tacitus  ; 

3.  And  though  his  argument  immediately  called  for  the 
use  of  this,  quotation  with  so  loud  a  voice,*  that  his  omis- 

*  In  his  celebrated  Apology,  Tertullian  is  so  hot  upon  the  scent  of  this  passage, 
that  his  missing  it  had  it  been  m  existence,  is  almost  miraculous.  In  Chap- 
ter 5  of  this  Apology,  he  says,  "  Consult  your  histories,  there  you  will 
find  that  Nero  was  the  first  to  draw  the  bloody  and  imperial  sword  against  this  sect 
then  rising  at  Rome."  Yet  even  here,  he  stumbles  not  on  this  famous  pas- 
sage. 


896  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

sion  of  it,  if  it  had  really  existed,  amounts  to  a  vioUntimr 
probability. 

4.  This  Father  has  spoken  of  Tacitiis  in  a  way  that  it 
is  absokitely  impossible  that  he  shoaldhave  spoken  of  him, 
had  his  writings  contained  such  a  passage.* 

6.  It  is  not  quoted  by  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  who  set 
himself  entirely  to  the  work  of  adducing  and  bringing  to- 
gether all  the  admission's  and  recognitions  which  Pagan 
authors  had  made  of  the  existence  of  Christ  or  Christians 
before  his  time. 

6.  It  has  been  no  where  stumbled  on  by  the  laborious 
and  all-seeking  Eusebius,  who  could  by  no  possibility  have 
missed  of  it,  and  whom  it  would  have  saved  from  the 
labour  and  infamy  of  forging  the  passage  of  Josephus  ; 
of  adducing  the  correspondence  of  Christ  and  Abgarus, 
and  the  Sibylline  verses  ;  of  forging  a  divine  revela- 
tion from  the  God  Apollo,  in  attestation  of  Christ's  ascen- 
sion into  heaven  ;  and  innumerable  other  of  his  pious  and 
holy  cheats. 

7.  There  is  no  vestige  nor  trace  of  its  existence  any 
where  in  the  world  before  the  15th  century. 

8.  It  rests  then  entirely  upon  the  fidelity  of  a  single  in- 
dividual ; 

9.  And  he,  having  the  ability,  the  opportunity,  and  the 
strongest  possible  incitement  of  interest  to  induce  him  to 
introduce  the  interpolation. 

10.  The  passage  itself,  though  unquestionably  the  work 
of  a  master,  and  entitled  to  be  pronounced  the  chef 
dPobuvre  of  the  art  :  betrays  the  penchant  of  that  delight  in 
blood  and  in  descriptions  of  bloody  horrors,  as  peculiarly 
characteristic  of  the  Christian  disposition,  as  it  was  abhor- 
rent to  the  mild  and  gentle  mind  and  highly  cultivated 
taste  of  Tacitus. 

11.  It  bears  a  character  of  exaggeration,  and  trenches 
on  the  laws  of  rational  probability,  which  the  writings  of 
Tacitus  are  rarely  found  to  do. 

12.  It  may  be  met  and  overthrown  by  the  concussion  of 
directly  conflicting  evidence  of  equal  weight  of  challenge  ; 
a  shock  to  which  no  statements  of  Tacitus  besides  are 
liable. 

13.  It  is  not  conceivable  that  Nero,  who,  with  all  his 

*  After  other  quotations  from  the  writings  of  Tacitus,  Tertullian  continues  hia 
argument:  "  And  indeed  that  same  Cornehus  Tacitus,  that  most  prating  of  all 
liars,  in  the  same  history  relates,  '  At  enim  Cornehus  Tacitus  sane  ille  niendacio- 
rum  loquacifleimufl  in  cad.  hist.  ref.  &o." — Citat.  Kortholt,  p.  272. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  397 

crimes,  was  at  least  not  safe  in  the  commission  of  crime  ; 
and  paid  at  last  the  forfeit  of  his  life,  not  to  private  re- 
venge, but  to  public  justice,  for  less  heinous  enormities  ; 
should  have  been  so  ludibund  in  cruelty,  and  wanton  in 
wickedness,  as  this  passage  would  represent  him. 

14.  It  is  not  conceivable,  that  such  good  and  innocent 
people  as  the  primitive  Christians  must  be  supposed  to  be, 
should  have  provoked  so  great  a  degree  of  hostility,  or 
that  they  should  not  sufficiently  have  endeared  themselves 
to  their  fellow-citizens,  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  their 
being  so  treated. 

15.  It  is  not  conceivable,  that  so  just  a  man  as  Tacitus 
unquestionably  was,  could  have  spoken  of  the  professors 
of  a  purer  religion  than  the  world  before  had  seen,  as  really 
criminal,  and  deserving  exemplary  punishment. 

16.  The  whole  account  is  falsified  by  the  text  of  the 
New  Testament,  in  which  Nero  is  spoken  of  as  the  Minis- 
ter of  God  for  good  ;  and  the  Christians  have  the  assurance 
of  God  himself,  that  so  long  as  they  were  followers  of  that 
which  was  good,  there  was  none  that  would  harm  them. — 
See  1  Peter  iii.  13. 

17.  I^is  falsified  by  the  apology  of  Tertullian,  and  the 
faV  more  respectable  testimony  of  Melito,  Bishop  of  Sar- 
dis,  who  explicitly  states  that  the  Christians,  up  to  his 
time,  the  third  century,  had  never  been  victims  of  perse- 
cution :  and  that  it  was  in  provinces  lying  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  not  in  Judea,  that 
Christianity    originated. — See    their  testimonies  in  this 

DiEGESIS. 

18.  Not  a  disposition  to  reject  Christianity,  but  an 
eagerness  and  promptness  to  run  after  and  embrace  it, 
has  in  all  ages  been  the  constitutional  cacoethes  of  the 
human  mind. 

19.  Tacitus  has  in  no  other  part  of  his  writings  made  the 
least  allusion  to  Christ  or  Christians. 

20.  The  use  of  this  passage  as  a  part  of  the  Evidences 
of  the  Christian  Religion,  is  absolutely  modern. 


SUETONIUS,    A.    D.    110. 

C.  Suetonius  Tranquillus,  a.  d.  110,  a  Roman  histo- 
rian, in  his  life  of  Claudius,  who  reigned  from  a.  d.  41 
to  54  ;  says,  that  "  he  drove  the  Jews,  who,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  Krestusj  were  constantly  rioting ,  out  of  Rome.* 

*  Judseos  impulsore  Chresto,  assidu6  tumultuantca  Roma  expulit. 
35 


5d6  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

Orosius,  a  Christian  writer  of  the  fifth  century,  who 
quotes  the  passage,  does  not  pretend  to  know  whether  it 
was  the  Christians  or  Jews  who  were  tlius  expelled. 
Notwithstanding  the  absurdity  of  the  supposition  of  this 
Chrestus  being  Christ,  and  of  Christ  heading  riots  in 
Rome  ;  this  passage  has  served  its  generation  as  Chris- 
tian Evidence.  Dr.  Lardner,  however,  admits  that 
"  learned  men  are  not  satisfied  that  this  relates  to  the 
Christians." 

2,  In  his  life  of  Nero,  Suetonius  says,  that  "  The  Chris- 
tians,* a  race  of  men  of  a  new  and  villainous,  wicked  or 
magical  superstition,  were  visited  with  punishment."  I 
hope  it  may  not  offend  them,  to  hope  that  neither  does 
this  relate  to  Christians. 

3.  In  his  life  of  Vespasian,  he  says,  "  There  had  been 
for  a  long  time  all  over  the  East,  a  notion  firmly  believed, 
that  it  was  in  the  fates  (in  the  decrees  or  books  of  the 
fates)  that  at  that  time,  some  which  came  out  of  Judea 
should  obtain  the  Empire  of  the  world." 

This  is  as  far  as  Paley,  Doddridge,  and  other  sophis- 
tical Christian  Evidence  manufacturers,  find  it  convenient 
to  quote  the  passage.  The  finishing  would  spoil  ^eir  use 
of  it — this  it  is, 

"  By  the  event  it  appeared  that  that  prediction  related 
to  the  Roman  Emperor.  The  Jews,  applying  it  to  them- 
selves, went  into  a  rebellion."! 

Josephus  himself  calls  this  an  ambiguous  oracle,  and 
admits  its  application  to  Vespasian  only,  though  found  in 
their  sacred  Scriptures.;}:  So  little  will  the  passage  serve 
the  cause  in  which  it  has  been  enlisted. 

There  is  no  reasonable  ground  for  thinking  that  by 
Chrestus,  Suetonius  meant  Christus.  Chrestus  itself  is  a 
proper  name  for  any  good  man.  And  by  a  most  curious 
coincidence  with  the  orthography  of  Suetonius,  we  find 
the  earliest  Fathers  actually  punning  on  the  word  ;  holding 
it  as  entirely  indifferent  whether  they  were  called  Chris- 
tians, or  Chrestians  ;  giving  equally  absurd  and  riddle  me 
ret  reasons  for  either  the  one  name  or  the  other,  but  never 

*  Afflict!  suppliciis  Christiatii,  genus  bominum  supeistitionis  novae  et  male- 
ficoe. 

+  Percrebuerat  Oriente  toto,  vetus  etconstana  opinio,  esse  in  fatis,  ut  eo  tem- 
pore Judea  profecti  reram  potirentur.  Id  de  Imperatore  Romano,  quantum  eventu 
postea  patuit,  predictum  Judiae  ad  se  trahentes  rebellarunt.   Cap.  4. 

XXfiria^o^  aficpifiolo?  o^ioiwg  «v  roig  iiQoii  tvQrjutvof  yQaftfiaOtv,  litiXe  SaQUJtt^t 
Tijv  ^via^tfiiavH  TO  Xoyiov  tiyiiioviav,  anoSti&ivrog  tnt  ibdants  OUTCX^OTO^OS.""* 
Jos.  de  Bell.  1.  6,  c.  5,  sect.  4. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  399 

distinctly  pretending  to  derive  that  name  from  any  par- 
ticular Christus,  or  Chrestus,  who  had  had  a  real 
existence,  and  been  the  founder  of  their  sect.  The  mere 
lotacism  or  change  of  the  long  e  into  i,  or  i  into  e, 
often  occasioned  the  substitution  of  the  one  word  for  the 
other. 

1.  The  disciples  were  called  Christians  first  at  Antioch  ;  Acts 
xi.  26,  that  is,  unquestionably,  they  assumed  not  the  name 
themselves,  but  it  was  given  them  by  the  Gentiles,  in 
whose  sense  of  it,  consequently,  the  real  meaning  of  it  is 
to  be  found. 

2.  Justin  Martyr,  in  his  account  of  the  name,  which  he 
gives  in  his  apology  to  Antoninus  Pius,  thus  puns  away 
all  possible  reference  to  the  name  of  Christ  as  the  founder 
of  a  sect.  "  We  are  called  Christians.  So  then  we  are 
the  best  of  men  (Chrestians),  and  it  can  never  be  just  to 
hate  what  is  (chrest)  good  and  kind.* 

3.  Theophilus  of  Antioch,  after  a  long  string  of  puns 
upon  Christus,  and  Chrestus ;  thinks  that  Christus,  and 
not  Chrestus  should  be  the  word,  because  of  the  sublime 
significancy  of  Christus,  which  signifies  "  the  sweet,  and 
agreeable  ;  and  most  useful,  and  never  to  be  laughed  at 
article  o{ pomatum,  f 

"  What  use  of  a  ship  (he  argues)  unless  it  be  besmeared  9 
What  tower  or  palace  would  be  elegant  or  useful  unless 
it  were  greased  V  "  What  man  comes  into  life  or  enters 
into  a  conflict,  without  being  anointed  }  What  piece  of 
work  could  be  considered  finished,  if  it  were  not  oiled  ? 
The  air  itself  and  every  creature  under  heaven,  is  as  it  were 
anointed  with  light  and  spirit.  Undoubtedly  we  are  called 
Chnstians  for  this  reason,  and  none  other,  than  because  we 
are  anointed  with  the  oil  of  God."j: 

Tertunian,§  Clemens  Alexandrinus,]!  and  St.  Jerom,ir 
abound  in  the  same  strain. — Every  where  we  meet  with 
puns  and  conundrums  on  the  name  ;  no  where  with  a  ves- 

*  XQiarittvoi  tivai  y.arr]yo()ov^it9a,  to  St  jgjjaror /«tcT£i(i5^ai  on  Sixaiov — X^r^aio- 
raxoi  vTcuQxo^ttv. — Justini  Apol. 

t  Oti  to  x^tOTov  TiSv  xai  ev^QtiOXov  xai  axarayiXaarov  fOTi. — x,  r.  A.  lib.  1,  Ab 
Autolycum. 

t  ToiyaQovv  ij,"ei;  tovtov  siriy.tv  xalovncS^a  jfgitrTiorot,  oTi  )((>t0f.iS'9a  iXato> 
Gsov. — Ibidem. 

§  Cum  pei-peram  Chiistianus  pronunciatur,  (puta  Chrestianus)  de  suavitate  vel 
benignitate  compositum  nomen  est. —  Terbul. 

II  Quia  apud  Grsecos,  ;fo?;oroT>;c  utrumque  sonat.  Virtus  est  lenis  blanda  tran- 
quiila  et  omnium  bonorum  consortio. — Hieronym.  in  Gal.  v.  22. 

IT  AvTixa  01  tig  ^'^lOTor  ntniortvy.oTtg  _;|f§jjaToi  xt  tOi  xai  ieyoyron. — Clemetltii 
Strommat. 


400  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

tige  of  the  real  existence  of  a  person  to  whom  the  name 

was  distinctively  appropriate. 


PLINY,    A.    D.    110. 

Pliny  the  younger,  was  born  a.  d.  61.  He  held  impor- 
tant civil  and  religious  offices  under  the  Roman  Govern- 
ment, was  the  personal  friend  of  Tacitus,  and  was  in  the 
year  106  sent  by  the  emperor  Trajan  as  proconsul  into  the 
province  of  Bithynia,  from  whence  he  wrote  the  annexed 
letter  : 

"  *Pliiiy  to  the  emperor  Trajan  wisheth  health  and  hap- 
piness.— It  is  my  constant  custom,  sir,  to  refer  myself  to 
you  in  all  matters  concerning  which  I  have  any  doubt : 
for  who  can  better  direct  me  when  I  hesitate,  or  instruct 
me  when  I  am  ignorant.  I  have  never  been  present  at 
any  trials  of  Christians ;  so  that  I  knew  not  well  what  is 
the  subject  matter  of  punishment,  or  of  enquiry,  or  what 
strictness  ought  to  be  used  in  either.  Nor  have  I  been 
a  little  perplexed  to  determine  whether  any  difference 
ought  to  be  made  on  account  of  age,  or  whether  the  young 
and  tender,  and  the  full  grown  and  robust,  ought  to  be 
treated  all  alike  ;  whether  repentance  should  entitle  to 
pardon,  or  whether  all  who  have  once  been  Christians 
ought  to  be  punished,  though  they  are  now  no  longer  so  ; 
whether  the  name  itself,  although  no  crimes  be  detected, 
or  crimes  only  belonging  to  the  name,  ought  to  be  punish- 
ed.    Concerning  all  these  things  I  am  in  doubt. 

"In  the  mean  time,  I  have  taken  this  course  with  all 
who  have  been  brought  before  me,  and  have  been  accused 
as  Christians.  I  have  put  the  question  to  them,  whether 
they  were  Christians  ?  Upon  their  confessing  to  me  that 
they  were,  I  repeated  the  question  a  second  and  a  third 
time,  threatening  also  to  punish  them  with  death.  Such 
as  still  persisted,  I  ordered   away  to  be  punished  ;  for  it 

*  Solenne  est  mihi,  Domine,  omnia  de  quibus  dubito,  ad  te  referre  :  quis  enim 
potest  melius  vel  cunctationem  meam  regere,  vel  ignorantiam  meam  instruere. 
Cognitionibu3  de  Christianis  interfui  nunquam :  ideo  vel  quid  vel  quatenus  aut 
puniri  soleat  aut  quteri,  nescio.  Nee  etiam  hfcsitavi  mediocriter,  sitne  aliquod  dis- 
crimen  cDtatum,  an  quamlibet  teneri  nihil  a  robustioribus  difFerant :  deturne  poeni- 
tentise  venia,  an  ei  qui  prorsus  Christianus  I'uit,  desTsse  non  prosit :  nonien  ipsum, 
etiamsi  flagitiis  careat,  an  flagitia  cohoerentia  nomini  puniantur.  Interim  in  iis  qui 
ad  me  tanquamChristiani  deferebantur,  hunc  sum  eequutus  modum.  Interrogavi  ipsos, 
an  essent  Christiani :  confitentes  iterum  ac  tertio  interrogavi,  suppiicio  minntus  ; 
perseverantes  duci  jussi.  Nequc  enim  dubitabam,  qualecunque  esset  quod  fateren- 
tar,  pervicaciam  certe,  et  inflexibilcm  obstinationem  debere  puuiri.  Fueruntalii 
similis   amentise:  quos,  quia  civos  llomani  erant,  annotavi  in  urbem  remittendoa. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  401 

was  no  doubt  with  me,  whatever  might  be  the  nature  of 
their  opinions,  that  contumacy  and  inflexible  obstinacy 
ought  to*  be  punished.  There  were  others  of  tlie  same 
infatuation,  whom,  because  tliey  are  Roman  citizens,  I 
have  noted  down  to  be  sent  to  the  city.  In  a  short  time, 
the  crime  spreading  itself,  even  whilst  under  persecution, 
as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  divers  sorts  of  people  came  in 
my  way.  An  information  was  presented  to  me,  without 
mentioning  the  author,  containing  the  names  of  many 
persons,  who,  upon  examination,  denied  that  they  were 
Christians,  or  had  ever  been  so;  who  repeated  after  me 
an  invocation  of  the  gods,  and,  with  wine  and  frankin- 
cense, made  supplication  to  your  image,  which  for  that 
purpose  I  had  caused  to  be  brought  and  set  before  them, 
together  with  the  statues  of  the  deities.  Moreover,  they 
reviled  the  name  of  Christ.  None  of  which  things,  as  is 
said,  they  who  are  really  Christians  can  by  any  means 
be  compelled  to  do.  These,  therefore,  I  thought  proper 
to  discharge. 

"  Others  were  named  by  an  informer,  who  at  first  con- 
fessed that  they  were  Christians,  but  afterwards  denied 
it:  and  some,  acknowledging  that  they  had  been,  declared 
that  they  had  relinquished  the  profession,  some  above 
three  years  ago,  some  a  longer  time,  and  several  more 
than  twenty  years.  All  these  paid  the  accustomed  divine 
honours  both  to  your  statue  and  to  the  images  of  the 
gods;  and  they  also  reviled  Christ.  They  moreover  de- 
clared that  the  whole  of  what  was  laid  to  their  charge, 
whether  it  were  a  crime  or  a  mere  error,  consisted  in  this: 
that  they  made  it  a  practice,  on  a  stated  day,  to  meet 
together  before  day-light,*  to  sing  hymns  with  responses 
to  Christ  as  a  god,  and  to  bind  themselves  by  a  solemn 
institution,  not  to  any  wrong  act,  but  that  they  would  not 

Mox  ipso  tractu,ut  fieri  solet,  diffundente  se  crimine,  plures  species  incidenmt.  Pre 
positus  est  libellus,  sine  auctore,  multoruni  notnina  continens,  qui  negarent  se  esse 
Christianos,  aut  fuisse;quum,  praeeunte  me,  deos  appellarent,  et  imagini  tuse,  quam 
propter  hoc  jusseram  cum  siniulacris  numinum  afferri,  thure  ac  vino  supplicarent  ; 
prsBterea  maledicerent  Christo :  quorum  niliil  cogi  posse  dicuntur,  qui  sunt  revera 
Christiaoi.  Ergo  dimittendos  putavi.  Alii  ab  indice  nominati,  esse  se  Christinaos 
dixerunt,  et  mox  negaverunt:  fuisse  quidem,  sed  desTsse,  quidam  ante  triennium, 
quidam  ante  plures  annos,  non  nemo  etiam  ante  viginti  quoque.  Omnes  et  imagi- 
nemtuam,  deorumque  simulacra  venerati  sunt;  ii  et  Chiisto  maledixerunt.  Affirma- 

*  If  this  letter  be  genuine,  these  nocturnal  meetings  were  what  no  prudent 
government  could  allow  ;  they  fully  justify  the  charges  of  Caecilius  in  Minutius 
Felix,  of  Celsus  in  Origen,  and  of  Lucian,  that  the  primitive  Christians  were  a 
skulking,  light-shunning,  secret,  mystical,  frei  masonry  sort  of  confederation, 
;  the  general  welfare  and  peace  of  society. 

35* 


402  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE* 

commit  any  thefts  or  robberies  or  acts  of  unchastity,  that 
they  Avould  never  break  their  word,  that  they  would  never 
violate  a  trust;  that,  when  these  observances  were  finished, 
they  separated,  and  afterwards  came  together  again  to  a 
common  and  innocent  repast ;  but  that  they  had  given 
over  this  last  practice  after  my  edict,  in  which,  according 
to  your  orders,  I  forbad  social  meetings.  Upon  these 
declarations,  I  thought  it  requisite  to  get  at  the  entire 
truth  by  putting  to  the  torture  two  women  who  were 
called  deaconesses:  but  I  discovered  nothing  beyond  an 
austere,  an  excessive  superstition.  Upon  the  Avhole, 
therefore,  I  determined  to  adjourn  the  trials,  in  order  to 
consult  you:  for  the  case  appears  to  me  to  demand  my  so 
doing,  particularly  on  account  of  the  great  number  of  the 
persons  who  are  in  danger  of  suffering.  For  many  of  all 
ages  and  every  rank,  of  both  sexes  likewise,  are  accused, 
and  will  be  accused.  Nor  has  the  contagion  of  this  super- 
stition seized  cities  only,  but  the  villages  and  the  country. 
It  however,  still  seems  to  me,  that  this  evil  may  easily  be 
restrained.  For  it  is  assuredly,  sufficiently  obvious,  that 
it  is  upon  the  decline.  The  temples  which  were  a  little 
while  ago  almost  deserted,  begin  to  be  resorted  to,  as 
usual:  and  victims,  which  hitherto  hardly  found  a  pur- 
chaser, are  now  in  full  request:  whence  you  may  natu- 
rally suppose,  that  a  multitude  of  men  might  be  reclaimed, 
if  allowance  were  granted  to  their  repentance." — Pliny's 
Epistle,  book  10,  letter  97. 

However  little  room  for  doubt  of  the  genuineness  and  au- 
thenticity of  this  letter  there  may  seem  to  be,  we  ought  not 
to  have  known  that  the  name  of  Christians  was  common  to 

bant  autem,  banc  fuisse  summam  vel  culpae  suae,  vel  erroris,  quod  essent  soliti  stato 
die  ante  lucem  convenire;  carmenque  Cliristo,  quasi  Deo,  dicere  secuni  invicem; 
seque  sacramento  non  in  scelus  aliquod  obstringere,  sed  ne  furta,  ne  latrocinia,  ne 
adulteria  committerent,  ne  fidem  fallerent,  ne  depositum  appellati  abnegarent:  qui- 
bus  peractis  morem  sibi  discedendi  fuisse,  rursusque  coeundi  ad  capiendum  cibum, 
promiscuum  tamen,  et  iimoxium:  quod  ipsum  facere  desisse  post  edictum  meuna, 
quo  secundiim  mandata  tua  lietterias  esse  vetueram.  Q,uo  magis  necessarium  cr&- 
didi,  ex  duabus  anciilis  quas  ministnc,  dicebantur,  quid  esset  veri  et  per  toranenta 
quajrcre.  Sed  nihil  aliud  inveni,  quain  superstitionem  pravam  et  immodicam.  Ideo- 
quc,  dilata  cognilione,  ad  consulendum  te  decurri.  Visa  est  enini  mihi  res  digna  con- 
eultatione,  maxime  propter  periclitantium  numerum.  Multi  enim  omnis  setatis, 
omnis  ordinis,  utriusque  sexQs  etiam,  vocanturin  periculum,  et  vocabuntur.  Nequo 
enim  civitatcs  tantQni,  sed  vicos  etiam  atque  agros  superstitionis  istius  contagio  pcr- 
vagata  est:  qua;  videtur  sLsti  et  corrigi  posse.  Certe  satis  constat,  prope  jam  deso- 
lata  templa  ccepisse  celebrari,  et  sacra  solennia  diu  intermissa  repeti:  passimquo 
vaenire  victimas,  quaram  adhuc  rarissimus  emptor  inveniebatur.  Ex  quo  facile  est 
opinari,  quce  turba  hominum  einendari  possit,  si  sit  poenitentiae  locus. — Flinii 
Epistolar.  lib.   70,  Epist.  97. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  403 

the  worshippers  of  the  god  Serapis:  and  the  name  of 
Christ  common  to  the  whole  rabblement  of  gods,  kings, 
and  priests;  that  the  practices  described  in  this  letter,  are 
none  other  than  were  common  to  innmnerable  sects  of 
cracked-brained  pagan  visionaries;  and  that  the  observers 
of  these  practices  were  generally  found  to  be  such  despe- 
rately wicked  characters  as  are  ever  prompt  to  turn  faith 
into  faction,  and  religion  into  rebellion;  so  that  no  vigilant 
and  prudent  magistrate  could  be  indifferent  to  their  mach- 
inations, or  not  feel  himself  bound  to  use  all  the  powers 
with  which  the  laws  invested  him,  to  sift  the  principles 
and  grounds  of  their  combination,  and  to  make  himself  tho- 
roughly acquainted  not  only  with  all  that  they  professed, 
but  with  their  arcana  interiora,  the  more  interior  secrets, 
policy,  and  purpose  of  their  institution.  We  cannot  ima- 
gine, that  so  wise  and  good  a  man,  so  just  and  candid  a 
magistrate,  who  evidently  wished  to  make  the  best  of  the 
case  for  the  accused  party,  would  conceal  from  his  friend 
and  master,  Trajan,  any  thing  in  their  favour  that  had 
come  to  his  knowledge. 

Did  they  tell  him,  then,  that  they  were  the  followers  of 
a  religion  which  had  "  God  for  its  author,  happiness  for 
its  end,  and  truth  without  any  mixture  of  error  for  its 
matter?" 

Did  they  tell  him  that  they  were  the  disciples  of  one, 
who  then,  and  as  yet  within  the  memory  of  man,  had  a 
real  existence,  had  taught  a  purer  morality,  had  wrought 
miracles,  had  died,  and  risen  again  to  life? 

Did  they  lay  down  the  important  distinction  between 
the  "  teacher  sent  from  God;"  and  the  innumerable  Christs, 
Messiahs,  Emmanuels,  Logoses,  Words,  and  Messengers 
of  the  heathen  mythology ,"in  that  he  was  the  object  of 
history;  they  the  figments  of  romance,  that  "  he  was  real, 
they  an  empty  name." 

Did  they  so  much  as  mention  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth? Did  they  refer  to  one  single  circumstance  of  his 
life  as  a  man,  or  drop  an  enigma  that  could  set  the  mind 
to  guess  at  the  Galilean  rather  than  the  Stagyrite?  or 
make  it  more  probable,  that  they  meant  the  man  of  Naz- 
areth rather  than  the  Cacodemon  of  the  Forest?  No!  No! 
nothing  of  the  sort!  not  a  text,  not  an  iota,  not  a  vestige 
of  Christianity  in  her.  We  have  the  name  of  Christ, 
and  nothing  else  but  the  name,  where  the  name  of  Apol- 
lo or  Bacchus  would  have  filled  up  the  sense  quite  as 
well. 


404  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

It  is  not  to  be  concealed,  however,  that  the  Uterati  of 
Germany  have  maintamed  that  this  celebrated  letter  is 
another  instance  to  be  added  to  the  'long  list  of  Christian 
forgeries;  and  that  the  more  learned  German  divines  and 
critics  have  pretty  generally  given  it  up.  The  learned 
Dr.  Semler,  of  Leipsic,  adduces  nine  arguments  against  its 
authenticity,*  is  supported  by  Corrode,!  ^^^  was  replied 
to  by  Haveisaas:}:  and  Gierig.§ 

My  room  will  not  admit  my  entering  on  the  merits  of 
this  controversy;  and  as,  after  all  I  have  heard  of  it,  I 
am  not  disposed  to  admit  the  passage  to  be  fairly  con- 
quered, there  is  the  less  occasion  for  my  doing  so.  I  still 
think  it  may  be  genuine,  and  that  mainly  upon  the  strength 
of  its  amounting  to  so  very  little  or  nothing  in  weight  of 
evidence,  even  if  its  genuineness  were  unquestionable. 

I  leave  the  reader  to  give  what  consideration  he  may  to 
the  objections  to  the  claims  of  this  Epistle,  which  I  sub- 
join without  the  advantage  of  the  lights  Dr.  Semler  may 
have  cast  on  the  subject. 

1 .  The  undeniable  fact  that  the  first  Christians  were  the 
greatest  liars  and  forgers  that  had  ever  been  in  the  whole 
world,  and  that  they  actually  stopt  at  nothing. 

2.  The  undeniable  fact  that  it  was  not  the  ignorant  and 
vulgar  among  them,  but  their  best  scholars,  the  shrewdest, 
cleverest,  and  highest  in  rank  and  talent,  who  were  the 
practitioners  of  these  forgeries. || 

3.  The  flagrant  atopism  of  Christians,  being  found  in 
the  remote  province  of  Bythinia,  before  they  had  acquired 
any  notoriety  in  Rome.1T 

4.  The  inconsistency  of  religious  persecution,  with  the 
just  and  philosophic  character  of  the  Roman  government. 

5.  The  inconsistency  of  the  supposition  that  so  just  and 
moral  a  people  as  the  primitive  Christians  are  assumed  to 

*  Neue  Versuche  die  Kirchen  historic  der  ersten  Jahrunderte  inehr  aulzuklaren: 
by  Jo.  Salom.  Semler,  Leipsic,  1788,  Fesc.  1,  pp.  119—246. 

t  Beytragi  zur  Beforderung  des  versmuftigew  Denkens  in  der  Religion. 

i  Vertheidigung  der  Plinischen  Brife  uber  die  Arristen  gegen  die  Emwendungen 
der  H.  D.  Sender,  Gottingen,  1788. 

§  Gierig,  in  his  edition  of  the  Letters  of  C.  Plinius  Secund.  Leipsic,  1802. — 
Gierig  acknowledges  the  meritorious  diligence  and  fidelity  of  Semler,  in  examining 
the  credibility  of  the  monuments  of  Antiquity.  The  German  divines  have  almost 
the  exclusive  merit  of  the  faculty,  of  being  just  and  civil  to  thek  theological  oppo- 
nents; but  their  orthodoxy  is  proportiouably  suspicious. 

II  "  Origen  actually  embodied  fraud  into  a  system,  practised  it  with  the  approba- 
tion of  his  fellows,  and  gave  it  the  technical  name  of  Economia,  by  which  it  haa 
gone  ever  since." — Higgins's  Celtic  Druids. 

IT  "  Quo  cuncta  uudique  atrocia  aut  pudenda  confluunt  celebranturque!" 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  405 

have  been,  should  have  been  the  first  to  provoke  the  Ro- 
man government  to  depart  from  its  universal  maxims  of 
toleration,  liberality,  and  inditference. 

6.  The  inconsistency  of  such  conduct  with  the  humane 
and  dignified  character  of  Pliny. 

7.  The  use  of  the  torture  to  extort  confession — torturing 
and  tormenting  being  peculiarly  and  characteristically 
Christian. 

8.  The  choice  of  women  to  be  the  subjects  of  this  tor- 
ture; when  the  ill-usage  of  women  was,  in  like  manner, 
abhorrent  to  the  Roman  character,  and  peculiarly  and 
characteristically  Christian. 

9.  The  repetition  of  this  letter  in  the  one  ascribed  to 
Tiberianus,  being  precisely  such  a  repetition  as  we  find  of 
the  famous  forgery  of  Josephus,  in  the  Persic  History  of 
Christ,  by  Jeremy  Xavier.*  A  forgery  having  once  been 
successful,  it  should  seem  the  Christians  must  needs  ply  it 
again.     So  here  is  a  second  throw  at  the  same  game. 

"  Tiberianus,  Governor  of  Syria,  to  the  Emperor  Trajan. 

"  I  am  quite  tired  with  punishing  and  destroying  the 
Galilasans,  or  those  of  the  sect  called  Christians,  accord- 
ing to  your  orders;  yet  they  never  cease  to  profess  volun- 
tarily what  they  are,  and  to  offer  themselves  to  death. 
Wherefore,  I  have  laboured,  by  exhortations  and  threats, 
to  discourage  them  from  daring  to  confess  to  me  that  they 
are  of  that  sect.  Yet  in  spite  of  all  persecution,  they  con- 
tinue still  to  do  it.  Be  pleased  therefore,  to  let  me  know 
what  your  highness  thinks  proper  to  be  done  with  them." 
Cotelr.  Patr.  Apostol.  vol.  2,  p.  181;  Middleton  citante,  p.  201. 

No  rational  man  will  doubt  the  forgery  of  this  pretend- 
ed epistle,  which  though  thrown  earlier  in  time,  is  a  pal- 
pable repetition  of  the  good  hit  that  had  been  made  in  the 
epistle,  ascribed  to  Pliny. 

I  have  no  doubt  at  all  of  the  forgery  of  the  passage  of 
Tacitus.  But  if  the  objections  which  I  have  stated,  or  any 
other,  be  really  fatal  to  this  of  Pliny,  I  would  recommend 
my  reverend  opponents  and  all  other  assertors  that  the 
historical  evidences  of  Christianity  are  unassailable,  to 
curse  and  swear,  and  storm,  and  plunge,  and  persecute;  to 
revile,  defame,  and  injure  their  opponents  as  much  as  they 

*  Extat  etiara  in  Historia  Christi,  Persice  scripta  ab  Hieronymo  Xaverio,  Epis- 
tola  Pilati  ad  Imp.  Tiberium,  quam  confinxisse  videtur  Xaverius  e  loco  celebri  qui 
de  Christo  legitur,  lib.  18.  Antiquitatum  Josephi,  c.  4.  Nullius  est  epistola  hasc  vel 
fidei  vel  autoritatis. — Fabricii  Codex  Apocryphus,  torn.  1.  p.  301.  a.  d.  1703, 
Hamburg!. 


r406  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

possibly  can,  to  represent  them  as  miserably  ignorant,  as 
desperately  wicked,  as  fools,  liars,  madmen,  and  idiots; 
but  above  all,  to  treat  both  them  and  their  writings,  with 
the  most  sovereign  contempt. — 'Tis  the  best  they  can 
make  of  their  bad  bars^ain. 


EPICTETUS,  A.  D.    111. 
A  slave,  in  body  lame,  as  Irus  poor, 
Yet  to  the  Gods  was  Epictetus  dear.* 

He  is  placed  by  Lardner  about  a.  d.  109,  and,  in  his 
Enchiridion,  or  Manual  of  Moral  Virtue,  occurs  the  single 
allusion  which  may  be  supposed  to  be  contained  in  the 
sentence  here  subjoined: 

"  So  it  is  possible  that  a  man  may  arrive  at  this  temper 
and  become  indifferent  to  these  things  from  madness,  or 
from  habit,  as  the  Galileans. "f 

In  Dr.  Lardner's  collection  of  the  Evidences  of  the 
Christian  Religion,  this  mode  of  expression  is  of  sufficient 
consequence  to  be  introduced  with  his  remark,  /  should 
rather  think  that  Christians  are  intended,  p.  49. 


PLUTARCH,  A.  D.   140. 

In  his  dialogue  de  defectu  Oraculorum,  relates  a  strange 
story  about  a  man  being  divinely  admonished  to  cry  out 
"  The  great  Pan  is  dead."  Huet  (and  other  equally 
learned  and  impartial  Christian  evidence  hunters)  suppose 
that  hereby  the  death  of  Christ,  who  is  the  true  pan,  the 
parent  of  all  things,  and  the  author  of  all  nature,  was  no- 
tified to  heathen  people. 

JUVENAL,  a.  d.  110. 

The  Roman  satirical  poet,  in  his  first  satire,  has  three 
lines,  sufficient  to  supply  a  possible  allusion  to  the  suffisr- 
ings  of  the  primitive  Christians,  and  a  frightful  vignette 
to  the  congenial  taste  of  the  admirers  of  the  pocket  edi- 
tion of  Paley's  Evidences. 

"  Describe  Tigellinus,  and  you  shall  suffer  the  same 
punishment  with  those  who  stand  burning  in  their  own 

*  This  distich,  in  Greek  verse,  is  generally  attached  to  the  portraits  of  this  orna- 
ment of  the  human  race. 

t  £iru  ficv  vjzo  ^ayiag  fttv  dvvarai.  Tig  ovto  ^laTt^ijj'ai  TtQog  ravra  tj  vno  t&ovf 
we  01  JTaliXaioi. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  407 

flame,  their  head  being-  held  up  by  a  stake  fixed  to  their 
chin,  till  they  make  a  long  stream  of  blood  and  melted  sul- 
phur on  the  ground."* — Paleifs  rendering. 


THE    EMPEROR   ADRIAN,    A.  D.    134. 

The  letter  of  the  Emperor  Adrian  to  his  brother-in-law  Servianus, 

written  in  the  year  1 34,  and  preserved  in  Flavins  VopicuSy  who 

flourished  about  a.  d.  300. 

f  "Egypt,  which  you  commended  to  me,  my  dearest 
Servianus,  I  have  found  to  be  wholly  fickle  and  inconstant, 
and  continually  wafted  about  by  every  breath  of  fame. 
The  worshippers  of  Serapis  are  Christians,  and  those  are 
devoted  to  the  God  Serapis,  who  (I  find)  call  themselves 
the  bishops  of  Christ.  There  is  here  no  ruler  of  a  Jewish 
synagogue,  no  Samaritan,  no  Presbyter  of  the  Christians, 
who  is  not  either  an  astrologer,  a  soothsayer,  or  a  minister 
to  obscene  pleasures.  The  very  Patriarch  himself,  should 
he  come  into  Egypt,  would  be  required  by  some  to  worship 
Serapis,  and  by  others  to  worship  Christ.  They  have,  how- 
ever, but  one  God,  and  it  is  one  and  the  self-same  whom 
Christians,  Jews,  and  Gentiles  alike  adore,  i.  e.  money." 

Coincident  with  this  unsophisticated  testimony,  is  the 
never-refuted  charge  of  Zozimus,  that  the  Emperor  Con- 
stantine  learned  the  Christian  religion  from  an  Egyptian  ^ 
and  the  fact  admitted  by  Socrates,  that  the  cross  was  found 
in  the  temple  of  Serapis, §  and  claimed  by  his  worshippers 
as  the  proper  symbol  of  their  religion. 


THE    EMPEROR    MARCUS     AURELIUS     ANTONINUS,    THE    PHI- 
LOSOPHER,   A.   D.    180. 

4x1  the  eleventh  of  the  twelve  books  of  his  meditations, 
speaks  of  a  becoming  fortitude  of  soul,  as  wholly  of  a 
superior  character    to   that    mere    obstinacy,    as  of  the 

*  PoneTigellinuni,  teda  lucebis  in  ilia 
Qua  stantes  ardent,  qui  fixo  gutture  futnant 
Et  latum  media  sulcum  deducis  arena. — Juv.  Sat.  1.  v.  155. 
t  Adrianus  Aug.  Serviano  Cos.  S.     "  ^Egyptum  quara  mihi  laudabua  Serviane 
carissime,  totam  didicilevem,  pendulam  et  ad  omnia  famse  momenta  volitantem. 
lUi  qui  Serapim  colunt,  Cluistiani  sunt :  et  devoti  sunt  Serapi,  qui  se  Christi  epis- 
copos   dicunt.     Nemo   illic  Archisynagogus  Judaeorum,  nemo   Samarites,   nemo 
Christianorum  presbyter, — non  ftlathematicus,   non   Aruspex,  Aliptes.     Ipse  ille 
patriarcha  quum  in  ^Egyptum  venerit  ab  aliis  Serapidem  adorare,  ab  aliis  cogitur 

Christum Unus  illb  Deus  est  hunc  Judsei,  hunc  omnea  leneran- 

tor  et  geutes. 

i  See  the  Chapter  on  Constantine. 

§See  the  passage,  p.  205  in  this  Diegesis 


408  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

Chrisiians.  The  single  phrase  »?  <»  /rffiTiwo?,  "  Zifce  the  Chns- 
tians,''^  is  the  whole  amount  of  this  testimony.  Nor  is  it 
certain  whether  by  the  name  of  Christians,  he  means  the 
w.orshippers  of  Christ,  or  of  Serapis.  Below  is  the  whole 
context.* 


M.    VALERIUS    MARTIALIS,    A.   D.     110. 

Contemporary  with  Juvenal,  has  an  epigram,  the  gist  of 
which,  is  to  ridicule  the  folly  of  giving  the  credit  of  rational 
fortitude  to  those  fool-hardy  wretches  that  rush  on  volun- 
tary sufferings,  and  who  would  stand  to  be  baked  in  ovens, 
or  hold  their  limbs  over  red  hot  coals,  for  the  purpose  of 
exciting  sympathy  ;  and  who,  it  is  assumed,  could  be  no- 
body else  than  the  primitive  Christians. 

"  In  matutina  nuper  spectatus  arena 
Mucius,  imposuit  qui  sua  membra  focis 
Si  patiens  fortisque  tibi  durusque  videtur 
Abderitanse  pecto)«i  plebis  habes  ; 
Nam  cum  dicatur  tunica  prajsente  molesta 
Ure  manum  :  plus  est  dicere  non  facio." 
As  late  you  saw  in  early  morning's  show, 
Mucius,  the  fool,  on  red  ashes  glow. 
If  brave  and  patient,  thence,  he  seems  to  thee, 
Thou  art,  luethinks,  as  great  a  fool  as  he  ; 
For  there,  in  robe  of  pitch,  the  fire  prepared, 
The  wretch  would  burn,  because  the  people  stared. 


LUCIUS    APULEIUS,  A.  D.    164. 

Of  Madaura,  wrote  a  fantastical  book  of  metamorpho- 
ses, probably  in  principle  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  Ovid. 
Our  beaters  up  for  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion  have 
enlisted  this  work  also  ;  and  in  a  ridiculous  story  in 
which  a  man  who  was  metamorphosed  into  an  ass,  and  in 
that  incarnation,  sold  to  a  baker, — describes  his  mistress, 
the  baker's  wife,  as  a  red  hot  virago,  an  adulterous, 
drunken  thief,  cheat,  scold,  and  liar  ;  but  with  all  (as  such 
characters  generally  are)  peculiarly  religious.f  We  are 
to  imagine  that  we  have  some  sort  of  evidence  of  the 
existence  of  Christianity.  Dr.  Lardner  concludes,  "there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Apuleius  here  designs  to  represent  a 

*  Ota  eaxiv  »;  ipvx}},  rj  troi/tof  tav  riStj  aTtoiv&ijvat  iei  xov  aufiatoi.  Kai  ijToi 
o(ita&tjyai,  r\  axt&aa&tjvai,  »;  ov/^uitvai.' 

To  3s  tToi^ior  Tovro  na  ano  iSixtji  xQiatwg  ijQ;f>)Tat ;  jui;  xcna  tf/iXii%  noQara^i* 
Ui  01  j^^tartai'ot,  uXXa  Xtkoyiaufr'tug  xat  aiuruig  xai  oiors  xai  ccAJlov  n$taai, 
aTpoyojt'uj?. 

t  Pistor  ille  qui,  pessimam  et  ante  cunctas  mulieres  longe  deterrimam  sortitus 
conjugem,  poenas  extremas  tori  larisque  sustinebat ;  scceva  sceva,  vitiosa,  ejuUMi 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  409* 

Christian  woman."  No  doubt,  no  doubt  !  'Tis  hard  to  tell, 
whether  Christianity  or  the  ladies  owe  him  the  profounder 
courtesy. 

With  all  deference  to  the  judgment  of  Dr.  Lardner, 
I  venture  to  suggest,  that  this  passage  has  not  the  re- 
motest relation  to  that  evidences  for  the  Christian  religion, 
which  he  wishes  to  bring  forward.  It  bears  a  strong  indi- 
cation of  the  better  and  more  honourable  rank  which  the 
wife  held  in  the  domestic  economy,  under  the  ancient  pa- 
ganism, a  fact  which  he  and  all  other  Christian  advocates 
endeavour  always  to  conceal.  It  indicates  the  prevalence 
of  that  better  feehng  towards  the  fair  sex,  which  would 
have  shuddered  at  the  indelicacy  of  dragging  virgin-mo- 
desty into  the  presence  of  a  liquorish  priest,  to  utter  an 
enforced  acknowledgment  of  sentiments,  which,  whether 
felt  or  not,  were  never  meant  by  nature  to  be  acknowledg- 
ed, and  to  make  vows  and  pledges  of  abject  subjection 
and  obedience  until  death,  beyond  all  measure  of  obliga- 
tion, in  which  any  rational  and  intelligent  being  could  be 
bound  to  one  who  may  become  false,  and  so  deserve  to 
be  forsaken ;  may  become  tyrannous,  and  therefore  deserve 
to  be  hated.  This  undesigned  discovery  of  the  domestic 
economy  under  pagan  auspices,  is  strongly  corroborated 
by  the  fact,  that  among  the  paintings  found  in  the  ruins 
of  Herculaneum,  js  a  chaste  and  beautiful  figure  of  the 
matrimonial  Venus,  (FenMS  Pronuba)  holding  a  sceptre  of 
that  dominion  enjoyed  by  the  wife  in  domestic  affairs. 
Hence  as  Festus  under  the  article  clavis,  observes  *"  the 
keys  were  consigned  to  the  wife,  as  soon  as  she  entered 
her  husband's  house.  To  this  purpose  may  the  custom 
of  the  Egyptians  be  observed,  among  whom,  the  wife 
ruled  in  the  private  concerns  of  her  husband  ;  and  accord- 
ingly in  their  marriage  ceremonies,  he  promised  to  obey 
/ler."*  Neither  Christians  nor  Turks  have  ever  been  just 
to  women.  

LUCIANUS,    A.    D.    176. 

A  pagan  satyrist,  is  by  far  the  most  explicit  and  diffuse 
of  all  pagan  writers,  who  at  any  time  within  the  two  first 

peryicax,  pertinax,  in  rapinis  turpibus  avara,  in  sumptibus  turpibus  profusa,  inimica 
fidei,  hostis  pudicitioe.  Tunc  spretis  atque  calcatis  divinis  numinibusin  vicem  cert® 
religionis  mentita  sacrilega  praesumptione  Dei  quem  prsedicaret  unicum  conflec- 
tis,  observationibus  vanis  fallens  omnes  homines,  et  miserum  maritum  decipiens, 
matutino  mero,  et  continue  stupro  corpus  Mancaparat  Talis  ilia  mulier  miro  me 
persequebatur  odio  nam  et  ante  lucano  recubans  adhuc  subjungi  machinae  novitium. 
clamabat  asinum." — Ita  citat  Lardnerius,  Tom.  4.  p.  107, 
*  Univ.  Mag,  1778,  p,  134, 


410  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

centuries,  have  taken  notice  of  the  existence  of  the  Chris- 
tian sect,  and  of  their  doctrines  as  distinguishable  in 
those  early  times,  from  any  or  all  the  other  modes  of  piety. 
— His  testimony,  though  so  much  later  than  that  of  Pliny, 
is  entirely  corroborated  by  it,  and  of  the  utmost  conse- 
quence to  the  establishing  of  the  historical  fact  of  the 
real  state  of  things  in  his  time.  The  only  reason  I  can 
conceive,  why  our.  Christian  evidence  writers  have  made 
so  little  account  of  this  heathen  testimony,  is,  that  Chris- 
tian evidence  writers  have  in  general  been  tinctured  with 
Unitarianism,  and  therefore,  rather  willing  that  the  cause 
of  Christianity  should  lose  one  of  its  main  pillars,  than  that 
it  should  receive  support  from  one,  which,  at  the  same 
time,  demonstrates,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was 
really  the  earliest  and  purest  form  of  Christianity  ;  and 
consequently,  whether  Christianity  be  true  or  false,  the 
Unitarian  scheme  is  as  unauthorised  in  history,  as  it  is 
beyond  all  absurdities  that  even  were  in  the  world,  the 
most  disgustingly  and  insolently  absurd.  Lucian  had  seen 
and  conversed  with  St.  Paul,  had  learned  from  him,  imme- 
diately, what  his  doctrine  was — and  even  gives  us  a 
description  of  his  person,  as  well  as  of  the  manners  and 
character  of  the  Christian  sect ;  which  after  all  the  de- 
duction, that  we  can  reasonably  be  required  to  make  from 
his  testimony,  as  being  that  of  an  enemy,  retains  the  cor- 
roborating countenance*  of  every  other  document  on  the 
subject  of  which  we  are  in  possession,  not  excepting  that 
of  the  New  Testament  itself.  In  his  dialogue,  entitled 
PhilopatiiSy  under  the  character  of  Triephon,  he  describes 
their  form  of  oath,  as  being  "  by  the  high  reigning,  greaty 
immortal,  heavenly  father,  the  son  of  the  father,  and  the  spirit 
proceeding  from  the  father  ;  one  in  three,  and  three  in  one.''^* 
The  same  diologist  continues,  "  I  shall  teach  you  who  the 
true  Pan\  is  ;  and  who  was  before  all  things — for  I  for- 
merly underwent  the  same  things  as  you,  when  that 
Galilean,  {Paul  the  ^postle^)  met  me,  that  bald-headed, 
hook-nosed  fellow,  who  went  up  through  the  air  into  the 
third  heaven,  and  was  there  taught  the  best  things  ;§  and 
who  hath  regenerated  us  by  water,  and  hath  made  us  to 
walk  in  the  steps  of  the  blessed,  and  redeemed  us  from 
the  realms  of  the  wicked ;  and  I  will  make  you  if  you 

*  Tifjifitdovra  Stov,  fieyav,  c^ipQorov,  sQavwva,  vtov  naxQog,  nvivfia  txTcaxQOt 
txnoQtvo^itvov,  tv  txTQiiav,  xai  tj  ivo;  TQta. 

t  Compare  the  testimony  of  Plutarch  in  this  Diegesis. 

I  This  Parenthesis  is  actually  found  in  the  Latin  version  of  Kortholt 

§  2  Corinth.  12.  2. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  411 

will  hear  me, — a  man  indeed."*  The  description  of  the 
apostolic  chief  of  sinners,  here  drawn  indeed  by  an  un- 
friendly hand,  is  singularly  supported  by  all  the  bas 
relievos,  sculptures,  and  celebrated  paintings  of  his 
person,  in  which,  in  addition  to  the  short  squabby  figure, 
bald-head,  beetle  brows,  and  prodigiously  large  and 
hook  nose,  he  is  invariably  represented  as  pot-bellied 
and  bandy-legged.  He  indeed  describes  himself  as  hav- 
ing a  particularly  mean  and  dirty  look,  and  a  stammering 
voice;!  that  he  could  hardly  stand  on  his  feet;t  that  he 
was  subject  to  fits,  and  severely  afflicted  with  a  disease,! 
which  cannot  be  spoken  of  but  in  periphrases. 

In  his  dialogue  concerning  the  death  of  Perigrinus, 
Lucian  speaks  of  the  object  of  the  Christians'  worship — 
as  a  crucified  sophist! J  Little  stress  is  laid  however,  by 
Christians  on  this  admission,  though  its  authenticity  is 
far  less  questionable  than  that  of  Tacitus.  It  is  seen  at 
once  that  this  testimony  does  not  pledge  Lucian  to  an 
avowal  of  the  fact  of  the  crucifixion,  but  is  his  report  of 
the  report  which  Christians  had  given  of  themselves;  as 
that  of  Tacitus  is  no  more,  even  if  it  were  genuine.  Nei- 
ther Lucian  nor  Tacitus  were  believers. 

Lucian  has  however,  in  the  same  dialogue,  a  far  more 
explicit  testimony  to  the  then  character  of  Christians;  he 
tells  us,  that  "  whenever  any  crafty  juggler,  expert  in  his 
trade,  and  who  knew  how  to  make  a  right  use  of  things, 
went  over  to  the  Christians,  he  was  sure  to  grow  rich  im- 
mediately, by  making  a  prey  of  their  simplicity. "§ 

ANCIENT    WRITERS,    WHOSE   WORKS    STILL    REMAINING,    WERE 
WRITTEN    BETWEEN   A.    D.    35,    AND    A.    D.    200. 

I.  Those  who  have  mentioned  the   Christians,  wrote 
about: — 
A.  D.  107  C.  Plinius  secund  jun.  in  his  96th  epistle. 

HO  C.  Suetonius  Tranquill,  in  his  Life  of  Nero. 

110  Cornel  Tacitus,  in  his  Annals  15.  a.  44. 

*  JBycu  yaQ  at  StSaiw  ri  to  HAN,  xai  rig  o  ttqiuijv  navrwr — Kai  ya^  TtQwijv  xaya 
ravra  snaa^for,  aneq  ov,  J/vixa  Se  /not  FaXilaioi  ivtrvxtv,  avatpaXavriag  tTtiQQtvof 
sfTpiTov  «^a»ov  acQo^aTtiaag,  xai  ra  xaXXiaja  cxfiefiaSi^xiuc  Si  vSaro?  rj^iag  avsxai- 
viOiv  tg  ra  riav  ^laxaqtov  i/ria  naQeiSiuStiOs  y.ai  tx  tcuv  aas^av  jfwgouv  lUijay 
tlvTQuiaaro,  xai  at  ttodjctw  tjy  jue  axotig,  tn'  aXti&eiag  av^QOjnor. — Pro  auctorir 
tate  Kortholtiis,  p.  142. 

t  2  Corinth.  12.  7.  ;  4  Galet.  13, ;  1  Coloss.  24.  ;  2  Corinth.  11.  6.  ;— 
1  Corinth.  2.  3.;  2  Corinth.  5.  13.;  2  Corinth.  10.  10. 

X  Tor  avt(JxoXo7tlOflev^l^v  exetvov  aocpiarrjv  avTwv. 

§  This  passage  is  quoted  before  in  the  chapter  on  ^Esculapius.  I  have  also  be- 
fore quoted  the  testimony  of  Lucian,  p.  376,  as  satisfactorily  proving  the 
identity  of  St.  Paul,  distinctively  from  this  testimony  to  the  character  of  Chris- 
tianity. • 


412  EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE. 

138  The  Emperor  Adrian,  in  his  epistle  to  Servianus. 

130  M.  AurelAntonin,  philos.,inhis  Meditations,  e.  11. 

176  Lucianus,  in  his  dialogfue  on  the  death  of  Pere- 
grinus,  and  in  his  Philopatris. 

176  Celsus,  in  his  "  Essay  on  the  True  Word;"  rest- 
ing the  Honour  of  Origen. 

II.  Those  who  are  supposed  by  some  writers  on  the 
Christian  Evidences,  to  have  alluded  to  the  Christians; 
wrote  about: — 

A.  D.  98  Dio  Prusffius,  in  a  particular  phrase.* 

100  M.  Valer  Martialis,  in  the  epigram  quoted  in  this 

DiEGESIS. 

100  Dec  jun.  Juvenalis,  in  three  lines  quoted  in  this 

DiEGESIS. 

109  Epictetus,  in    a    single    phrase  quoted   in    this 

DiEGESIS. 

140  Arrianus,f  in  the  use  of  the  same  phrase.  , 

164  Lucius  Apuleius,  as  quoted  in  this  Diegesis. 
176  jElius  Aristides,  in  the  use  of  a  particular  phrase.  J 

III.  Those  who  would  be  likely  to  refer  to  the  Christians 
but  who  have  not  done  so;  wrote  about: — 

A.  D.  40  Philo. 
40  Josephus 

79  C.  Plinius  Secund,  the  elder.§  }  t)u;i«„„^u«„„ 
RQ  T.    A^r.    Cor...o     '  ^  I  Philosophers. 


69  L.  Ann.  Seneca 
79  Diogenes  Laertius 

79  Pausanias  }  n^^ i,«-« 

79  Pompon  Mela       \  Geographers. 

79  Q.  Curtius  Ruf.    1 
79  Luc.  Flor  | 

123  Appianus  !►  Historians. 

140  Justinus 

141  iElianus 

*  Oi  navra  StafiaXXovTi^ — those  who  cast  away  every  thing. — Dio  Prut. 

t  ,J2?  01  PaXii^aioi — like  the  Galileans. — Arrian. 

X  Toi?  ev  naXaioTtvtj  dvae(ieaiv — to  the  impious  people  in  Palestine. 

§  Both  those  philosophers  were  living,  and  must  have  experienced  the  imme- 
diate effects,  or  received  the  earliest  information  of  the  existence  of  Jesus 
ChrLst,  had  such  a  person  ever  existed;  their  ignorance  or  their  wilful  silence 
on  the  subject,  is  not  less  than  outrageously  improbable.  Whatever  might  be 
their  dispositions  with  respect  to  the  doctrines  of  Jesus;  the  miraculous  dark- 
ness which  is  said  to  have  accompanied  hia  crucifixion,  was  a  species  of  evidence 
that  must  have  forced  itself  upon  their  senses.  "  Each  of  these  philosophers  in 
a  laborious  work,  has  recorded  all  the  great  phenomena  of  nature,  earthquakes, 
meteors,  comets,  and  eclipses,  which  his  indefatigable  curiosity  could  collect  ; 
neither  of  them  have  mentioned,  or  even  alluded,  to  the  miraculous  darkness  at 
the  crucifixion." — Gibbon.  Alas!  the  Christian  is  constrained  to  own  that  omni- 
potence itself,  is  no  ^-omnipotent. 


EXTERNAL    EVIDENCE.  413 

IV.  Those  who  were  less  likely  to  allude  to  the  Chris- 
tians, yet  must  have  gone  somewhat  out  of  their  way,  on 
purpose  to  avoid  doing  so;  wrote  about — 
A.  D.  63  Aneneus  Lucanus 
64  Petronius  Arbiter 

64  Silius  Italicus 
•     65  M.  Ann.  Lucanus  \-  Poets. 

65  Valerius  Flaccus 
62  Aulas  Perseus 
90  Papinus  Statius 

100  Quinctilianus 

130  Ptolemseus 
Observe  too,  that  in  the  Corpus  Juris,  or,  whole  body  of 
Roman  law,  there  is   not  extant  one  word  against  the 
Christians. 

In  apology  for  this  tremendous  deficiency  of  evidence — 
Dr.  Lardner  pleads  in  mitigation  of  judgment,  the  follow- 
ing instance  of  a  similar  deficiency  of  historical  evidence, 
in  cases  where  the  fact  is  nevertheless  held  to  be  unques- 
tionable. 

1.  Velleius  Paterculus  is  mentioned  by  no  ancient 
writer  except  Priscian,  though  that  historian  certainly  liv- 
ed and  wrote  at  the  time  of  Tiberius. 

2.  M.  Annseus  Seneca,  the  father  of  the  philosopher  is 
almost  unknown. 

3.  Lucianus  has  never  mentioned  Cicero  in  his  enco- 
mium on  Demosthenes. 

4.  Maximus  Tyrius  (who  wrote  in  the  time  of  Antoninus 
Pius,)  has  no  reference  to  the  Roman  History. — To  this 
we  may  add: — 

That  Herodotus  and  Thucydides  have  never  mentioned 
the  Romans. 

Here  is  distress  indeed!  To  pursue  the  evidences  of  the 
Christian  religion,  after  we  have  seen  its  incomparably 
most  learned  and  able  advocates  thus  striking  on  the 
shoals  of  reckless  sophistry:  after  we  have  driven  the 
stragglers  for  a  grasp  on  historical  fact,  to  the  last  trick  of 
gathering  together  such  thousand  miles  off  may-he's  of  mere 
possible  allusion, — and  then  showing  us  the  lettered  backs 
of  their  huge  collections  as  "  Volumes  of  Evidence;'''' — ^would 
be  driving  the  drift. 

If  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion,  are  presumed 
to  be,  its  divine  effects  upon  the  dispositions  and  conduct 
36* 


414  MANUSCRIPTS,    &C. 

of  its  professors;  the  peculiar  generosity  and  liberality  of 
Christians  towards  the  enemies  and  opposers  of  their 
faith;  their  willingness  to  have  its  foundations  thoroughly 
sifted  and  examined;  their  readiness  at  all  times  to  ac- 
quaint themselves  with  all  the  objections  that  can  be 
brought  against  it,  by  whomsoever,  or  in  what  manner 
soever,  those  objections  may  be  urged;  their  abhorrence 
of  all  acts  of  slander  and  defamation,  for  the  sake  of 
excusing  themselves  from  the  trouble  of  enquiry;  their 
immaculate  innocence,  not  only  of  persecution  direct  and 
overt — but  of  the  dispositions  that  could  possibly  lead 
to  persecution;  their  more  rational  piety,  their  more  ex- 
alted virtue,  their  more  diffusive  benevolence.  Alas!  where 
are  those  evidences? 

We  have  looked  for  historical  evidences  which  might 
justify  a  rational  man  to  himself,  in  believing  the  Chris- 
tian religion  to  be  of  God.  And  there  are  none — abso- 
lutely none.  We  enquired  for  the  moral  effects  which  the 
prevalence  of  this  religion  through  so  many  ages  and 
countries  of  the  world,  has  produced  on  men's  minds,  and 
we  find  more  horrors,  crimes,  and  miseries,  occasioned  by 
this  religion  and  its  bad  influence  on  the  human  heart, 
more  sanguinary  wars  among  nations,  more  bitter  feuds 
and  implacable  heart  burnings  in  families;  more  desola* 
tion  of  moral  principle;  more  of  every  thing  that  is  evil 
and  wicked,  than  the  prevalence  of  any  vice,  or  of  all 
vices  put  together,  could  have  caused:  so  that  the  evi- 
dence which  should  make  it  seem  probable  that  God  had 
designed  this  religion  to  prevail  among  men,  would  only 
go  to  show  that  he  had  designed  to  plague  and  curse  them. 
But  not  so;  Christian,  hold  first!  and  ask  thine  own  heart 
if  thou  hast  not  charged  God  foolishly.  Ask  thine  own  con- 
victions, whether,  if  a  religion  were  the  wickedest  that 
ever  was  upon  earth,  and  as  false  as  it  was  wicked,  God 
himself  could  give  thee  any  more  likely  or  fairer  and  suf- 
ficient means  to  emancipate  thy  mind  from  it,  than  the 
means  thou  hast  here  (if  thou  wilt  use  them)  to  discover 
the  real  origin,  character,  and  evidences  of  Christianity. 
If  thou  believest  there  is  any  God  at  all,  at  any  rate,  thou 
should  also  believe  that  he  is  a  God  of  truth,  and  so  sure  as 
he  is  so,  so  sure  it  is,  that  the  pertinacious  belief  of  any 
thing  as  true,  which  we  might  by  the  free  exercise  of  our 
rational  faculties,  come  to  discover  to  be  false,  is  the 
greatest  sin  that  man  can  commit  against  him;  implicit 
faith  is  the  greatest  of  crimes;  and  the  implicit  believer  ia 
the  most  wicked  of  mankind. 


AP  P  END  IX. 


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APPENDIX. 


ANCIENT    VERSIONS    OP    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT. 


_  1.  ito'ivs — The  Peshito,  the  most  ancient  Syriac  ver- 
sion, brought  into  Europe,  a.  d.  1552.  Printed  at  Vienna, 
at  the  expence  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian. 

2.  The  Philoxenian,  a  later  Syriac  version,  made  in 
the  sixth  century,  under  the  inspection  of  Philozenus, 
Bishop  of  Hierapolis.  Published  at  Oxford,  by  Professor 
White,  A.  D.  1778. 

3.  The  Coptic,  in  the  ancient  dialect  of  the  Lower 
Egypt.     Still  read,  though  it  is  not  understood. 

4.  The  Sahidic,  in  the  ancient  dialect  of  the  Upper 
Egypt. 

5.  The  Ethiopic,  used  in  Abyssinia.  First  published  at 
Rome,  A.  D.  1548,  by  three  Ethiopian  editors. 

6.  The  Armenian,  made  in  the  fifth  century.  No  genu- 
ine copies  in  existence. 

7.  The  Persic,  there  are  two  of  this  class:  neither  very 
ancient;  the  one  a  translation  from  the  Syriac,  the  other 
from  the  Greek. 

8.  The  Latin,  sometimes  in  distinction,  called  the  Italic. 
These  very  translations  of  the  Greek  text  as  it  stood  in 
the  most  ancient  manuscripts,  were  in  general  use  in  an 
age  that  precedes  the  date  of  any  manuscript  now  extant. 

9.  The  Vulgate  is  that  Latin  first  corrected  and  pub- 
lished by  the  monk  St.  Jerome,  a.  d.  384,  by  order  of  Pope 
Damasus,  and  by  the  Council  of  Trent  pronounced  au- 
thentic; so  that  no  one  may  dare  or  presume,  under  any 
pretext,  to  reject  it. 

All  the  French,  Italian,  and  Spanish  bibles  that  were 
published  before  the  sixteenth  century,  were  taken  wholly 
from  the  Latin. — Marshes  Michaelis,  vol.  2.  p.  7. 


I  conclude  this  general  synopsis  of  the  ancient  versions 
of  the  New  Testament,  by  a  striking  and  spirited  censure, 
(as  applicable  to  the  great  author  from  whom  I  quote  so 
largely,  as  to  the  most  bigotted  of  his  fraternity,)  which  I 
find  in  a  very  able  work,  entitled  Palmoromaica,  published 
by  Murray,  1822,  professing  to  inquire  whether  the  Helle- 
nistic style  (that  of  the  Greek  Testament)  is  not  Latin 
Greek.  "The  opinion  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  was 
originally  composed  in  Latin,  is  not  only  supported  by  the 
Syrian  scholiast,  but  has  been  conjectured  by  several 


APPENDIX.  419 

theologians,  chiefly  of  the  Roman  church  ;*  which,  to  the 
shame  of  Protestantism,  has  allowed  far  greater  freedom 
of  discussion  to  its  members  than  has  ever  been  enjoyed 
in  those  churches  which  profess  to  make  free  inquiry  the 
boon  which  they  otfer,  and  the  very  badge  of  their  dis- 
tinction. In  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  say,  what  has  been 
secretly  discovered  or  not  discovered  in  biblical  criticism 
and  theology,  as  authors,  on  these  topics,  have  hitherto 
written  in  fetters  :  and  many  of  them,  probably,  have  sup- 
pressed much  of  their  real  sentiments,  from  an  anxiety  for 
their  repose." — Palmoromaica,  p.  18G.  Could  this  learned 
writer  have  more  significantly  given  us  to  understand,  that 
divines  have  never  yet  had  courage  enough  to  be  honest 


EDITIONS    OP    THE    GREEK    TESTAMENT. 

1.  The  CoMPLUTENsiAN  PoLYGLOT,  SO  Called  from  Com- 
plutum,the  ancient  name  for  Alcala,  a  Spanish  University, 
and  polyglot,  of  many  tongues.  Published  at  the  expence 
and  under  the  management  of  the  celebrated  cardinal, 
statesman,  and  warrior,  Francis  Ximenes  de  Cisneros,  the 
22nd  of  March,  1520,  by  permission  of  Pope  Leo  X.  Only 
600  impressions  were  taken  off. 

2.  A.  D.  1516. — Erasmus,  at  Basle  in  Switzerland,  pub- 
lished an  edition,  from  a  few  manuscripts  found  in  that 
neighbourhood — a  second,  a  third,and,lastly,  in  a.  d.  1527, 
a  fourth,  in  which,  to  obviate  the  clamour  of  bigots,  he 
introduced  many  alterations,  to  make  it  agree  with  the 
edition  of  Cardinal  Ximenes. 

3.  A.  D.  1550.  — RoBKRT  Stephens,!  a  learned  printer, 
at  Paris,  published  a  splendid  edition,  in  which  he  availed 
himself  of  the  Complutensian  Polyglot.  It  abounds  with 
errors,  though  long  supposed  to  be  a  correct  and  immacu- 
late work. 

4.  A.  D.  1589. — Theodore  Beza,  successor  to  John  Cal- 
vin, at  Geneva,  published  a  critical  edition,  in  which  he 
made  use  of   Robert   Stephen's   own  copy,   with   many 


*  Were  common  sense  consulted  in  matters  of  biblical  criticism,  what  would 
it  say  to  the  supposition  that  an  Epistle  to  the  Romans  should  be  written  in  a  lan- 
guage of  which  the  Romans  were  utterly  ignorant  ?  or  to  the  fact,  of  the  many 
words  in  the  Greek  Testament  which  are  nothing  more  than  Latin  words  written 
in  Greek  characters,  and  such  as  no  Greek  writer  of  those  times  would  either  have 
used  or  known  the  use  of '' 

t  He  first  introduced  the  present  division  of  the  text  of  the  New  Testament  into 
verses. — Michaelis,  vol.  2,  pt.  I,  p.  527. 


420  APPENDIX. 

additional  various  reading's,*  from  fifteen  manuscripts,  which 
had  been  entrusted  to  the  collation  of  Henry  Stephens,  the 
son  of  Robert,  a  youth  of  eighteen  years  of  age. 

5.  A.  D.  1624. — The  Elzevir  edition,  published  at  Ley- 
den,  at  the  office  of  the  Elzevirs,  who  were  the  most 
eminent  printers  of  their  time.  The  editor  is  unknown. 
This  edition  differs  very  little  from  the  text  of  Robert 
Stephens  ;  a  few  variations  are  admitted  from  the  edition 
of  Beza,  and  a  very  few  more  upon  some  unknown 
authority  ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that  the  editor  was  in 
possession  of  any  manuscripts.  The  reputation  of  the 
Elzevirs  for  correctness  of  typography,  and  the  beauty  of 
this  specimen,  raised  it  to  the  pinnacle — it  was  unac- 
countably taken  for  g-ranted,  that  it  exhibited  a  pure  and 
perfect  text.  This,  therefore,  became  the  standard  of  all 
succeeding  editions,  and  constitutes  at  this  day  the  received 
text.  • 


EUROPEAN    TRANSLATIONS. 

A.  D.  900. — Valdo,  Bishop  of  Frising,  caused  the  gospels 
to  be  translated  into  Dutch  rhyme. 

1160. — Valdus,  Bishop  of ,  caused  them  to  be  turn- 
ed into  French  rhyme.  We  may  guess  how  closely  the 
original  would  be  adhered  to  in  .these  poems. 

1360. — Charles  the  Wise  is  said  to  have  caused  them  to 
be  turned  into  French  prose. 

1377. — John  Trevisa  translated  them  into  English. 

The  art  of  printing  was  discovered  a.  d,  1444  ;  the  first 
printed  book  in  England  was  published  by  Caxton,  a.  d. 
1474,  the  13th  of  the  reign  of  our  Edward  IV.  Before 
this  time  our  Christian  countrymen,  generally,  must  have 
been  entirely  ignorant  of  the  text  of  Scripture. 

1517. — William  Tyndal  made  the  best  English  transla- 
tion of  the  New  Testament,  and  was  put  to  death  for  hav- 
ing done  so. 

1611. — The  seventh  of  our  King  James  I.,  that  is,  217 

years  since,  is  the  date  of  our  present  English  translation  ; 

:  in  the  preface  to  which,  the  translators  admit,  that  they 

themselves  did  not  know  whether  there  were  any  transla- 

'  tion,  or  correction  of  a  translation,  in  existence,  in  King 

Henry  the  Eighth  or  King  Edward's  time.     The  ground  of 

•  *  The  number  of  the  various  readings  is  admitted  to  be  at  least  one  hundred  and 
!  thirty  thousand  ;  the  total  number  of  words  is  one  hundred  and  eighty  one  thou- 
j   Hand  two  hundred  and  fifty-three. 


APPENDIX.  421 

objection  adduced  by  the  puritans  against  the  Church  of 
England  Liturgy,  to  King  James  I.,  at  Hampden  Court, 
was,  that  it  maintained  the  Bible  as  there  translated,  which 
they  said  was  a  most  corrupt  translation.  In  the  justice 
of  this  complaint,  originated  our  present  translation  under 
patronage  of  that  "  most  high  and  mighty  prince,  James," 
which  the  Roman  CathoUcs,  with  equal  justice  complain, 
that  it  egregiously  Protestantizes,  and  purposely  gives  a  ren- 
dering to  innumerable  phrases,  devised  to  hide  and  disguise 
their  original  and  essentially  monkish  and  papistical  sig- 
nificancy. —  fVard^s  Errata  of  the  Protestant  Translation,  and 
Johnson^s  Historical  Account  of  the  several  English  Translations 
of  the  Bible. 


SPURIOUS    PASSAGES. 

Passages  of  the  JVew  Testament,  retained  and  circulated  as  the 

Word  of    God,  or  as  of  equal  authority  with  the  rest,  though 

known  and  admitted  on  all  hands  to  be  forgeries. 

Acts  XX.  28.— 1  Timothy  iii.  16.— 1  John  v.  7.— These 
are  admitted  to  be  of  the  utmost  importance,  bearing 
on  the  most  essential  doctrines,  yet  are  wilful  and  wicked 
interpolations. 

Matt.  vi.  15. — The  whole  of  the  doxology  at  the  end  of 
the  Lord's  prayer. 

John  V. — The  whole  story  of  the  Poolx)f  Bethesda. 

Luke  xvi.  19. — The  whole  story  of  the  Rich  Man  in 
Hell-fire. 

John  viii. — The  whole  story  of  the  Woman  taken  in 
Adultery. 

Luke  xxiii.  39. — The  whole  story  of  the  Penitent  Thief. 

Acts  ix.  5,  6. — The  whole  paragraph  of  Christ's  Speech 
out  of  the  Clouds. 

The  whole  of  the  subscriptions  at  the  end  of  the  Epis- 
tles, wherever  found. 

The  whole  of  the  titles  and  superscriptions  wherever 
found.  • 

Passages   of  the  JVeio  Testament  rejected  by  the  German  Divines, 

and  most   eminent  Christian   critics,  scholars,  and  theologians 

of  Europe  :  or  held  as  at  least,  infinitely  suspicious. 

The  whole  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  from  beginning  to 
end. — Bretschneider. 

The  whole  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  :  of  the  Epistle 
of  St.  James  :  of  the  2nd  Epistle  of  Peter  :  of  the  2nd 
Epistle  of  John  :  of  the  3d  Epistle  of  John  :  of  the  Epistle 
37 


422  APPENDIX. 

of  Jude  :  of  the  Revelation — "  Not  fit  to  be  alleged  as  af- 
fording sufficient  proof  of  any  doctrine." — Dr.  Lardner. 

The  whole  of  the  last  nine  verses  of  Matt.  1. 

The  whole  of  the  second  chapter  following. 

The  whole  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  verses 
immediately  following  Luke's  preface. 

The  whole  of  the  Story  of  the  Angel  and  the  bloody 
Sweat,  (Luke  xx.  43.) — (jnitarian  Editors. 

The  whole  story  of  the  Conception,  of  the  Slaughter  of 
the  Innocents,  of  the  Devil  and  the  herd  of  Swine. — Dr. 
Etanson. 

The  whole  of  the  genealogy  of  Christ,  as  appearing  in 
St.  Luke. 

The  whole  of  the  story  of  his  baptism,  of  his  transfigu- 
ration, of  his  calming  the  storm. 

The  whole  of  the  gospels  of  St.  Matthew,  St.  Mark,  and 
St.  John. — Evanson. 

The  whole  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  was  unknown  or 
rejected  by  many  sincere  professors  of  the  Christian  faith 
in  the  fourth  century. — Chrysostom. 

The  whole  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  the  Epistle  to 
the  Ephesians,  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  the  1st  Epis- 
tle of  Peter,  the  1st  Epistle  of  John. — Evanson. 

Bishop  Marsh  makes  a  droll  apology  for  the  blunders  o* 
Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  which  he  maintains  to  be  per- 
fectly compatible  with  divine  inspiration  :  "  John,  who 
was  inspired  as  well  as  they,  had  the  advantage  of  having 
a  better  memory.^''  They  hacl  all  of  them  need  of  good  mem- 
ories, or  there  is  no  truth  in  the  proverb. 

It  is  the  unquestionably  Christian,  and  insurpassably 
learned  Evanson,  who  exclaims,  "  Gracious  God  !  have 
mercy  upon  the  presumptuous  folly  and  madness  of  thy 
erring  creatures  !" — Dissonance,  p.  82. 


FALSE    REPRESENTATIONS. 

1 .  It  is.a  false  representation,  or  what  would  be  called 
in  common  parlance — a  lie,  upon  the  title-page,  where  it 
is  represented,  that  the  New  Testament  is  "  translated 
out  of  the  original  Greek,"  seeing  there  never  was  any 
original  Greek.  The  original  of  "Matthew's  gospel  is  be- 
lieved to  have  been  Hebrew.  The  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans, and  indeed,  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament,  ex- 
isted in  a  barbarous  monkish  Latin,  from  which  the  old- 
est Greek  manuscripts  in  existence  are  but  barbarous 
translations. 


APPENDIX.  423 

2.  The  circulating'  the  whole  as  the  word  of  God,  and 
as  of  equal  authority,  notwithstanding-  its  containing-  sev- 
eral forged  and  interpolated  passages,  admitted  so  to  be, 
by  the  circulators  themselves.* 

3.  The  representing  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John 
as  the  authors  of  the  gospels  which  g-o  under  their  names  ; 
in  the  teeth  of  evidence,  that  those  gospels  are  blundering 
compilations  from  some  previously  existing  document  or 
documents. 

4.  The  representing  these  compilers  of  previously 
existing  documents,  as  contemporaries  or  witnesses  of  the 
transactions  which  their  compilations  detail. 

5.  The  multiplying  the  number  of  pretended  witnesses 
to  the  facts  of  the  gospel,  by  representing  those  as  wit- 
nesses, who  are  only  said  by  other  persons,  to  have  been 
witnesses. 

6.  The  fear  of  making  inquiry  whether  these  things  are 
so,  from  the  fear  of  discovering  that  they  are  even  so. 

7.  The  taking  any  means,  fair  or  foul,  direct  or  indirect, 
to  prevent  the  knowledge  of  them  coming  to  be  generally 
and  extensively  spread. 

8.  The  giving  currency  or  credence,  to  all  manner  of 
scandal,  slander,  and  evil  speaking  ;  and  heaping  all  pos- 
sible calumnies  on  the  motives  and  characters  of  those  who 
labour  to  undeceive  mankind. 

9.  The  prosecuting,  persecuting,  and  seeking  to  destroy 
or  drive  out  of  life,  those  who  exert  themselves  to  provoke 
inquiry,  and  to  diffuse  knowledge — who  sacrifice  their  own 
interests  to  the  public  good,  and  prefer  the  luxury  of 
making  the  world  in  which  they  live  the  better,  to  all  the 
luxuries  the  world  can  give. 

10.  The  taking  no  notice,  or  affecting  to  take  none,  of 
the  objections  to  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion, 
which  have  arisen  upon  admissions  and  surrenders  which 
have  been  made  by  the  ablest  divines  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, and  on  the  improved  science  of  criticism,  on  both 
sides  ;  and  then  pretending  that  there  is  no  novelty  in  the 
objections  of  modern  infidelity  ;  or  that  the  objections  of 
the  present  century  had  been  sufficiently  refuted  by  the 
Watsons,  Paleys,  Lardners,  or  Leslies,  of  fifty  or  a  hun- 

*  Yet  these  propagandists,  propagating  in  God's  name  what  they  know  to  be  a 

,  would,  to  be  sure,  pass  themselves  otf  for  honest  men — aye,  as  honest  as  the 

clippers  and  coiners  wiio  pay  their  way  with  a  great  deal  of  really  good  money, 
only  slipping  in,  here  and  there,  a  known  dump.  If,  in  our  own  time,  all  our  bish- 
ops, and  clergy,  and  all  religionists,  of  all  sorts,  still  concur  in  cnculating  or  coun- 
tenancing that  as  truth,  which  they  know  to  be  false,  what  chance,  think  we,  had 
truth  iu  the  struggle,  in  olden  time  ? 


424  APPENDIX. 

dred  years  ago — as  if,  after  admissions  had  been  made, 
which  had  never  before  been  admitted  ;  no  room  had  been 
given  for  objections  to  be  made,  which  had  never  before 
been  objected ;  and,  while  the  press  has  teemed  with  a 
tliousand  better  modes  of  defenchng  Christianity,  unbe- 
Hevers  had  been  asleep  all  the  while,  and  dreamed  of  no 
adroiter  methods  of  attacking  it:  or,  as  if  the  Alleys, 
Beards,  Belshams,  Chalmers,  Channings,  Collyers,  Elsleys, 
Hart  well  Homes,  Pye  Smiths,  Wilsons,  Marshs',  &c.,  and 
the  whole  Christian  phalanx  of  the  present  generation,  had 
had  no  scope  for  their  prowess  but  on  the  dead  bones  of 
Tindal,  Chubb,  Voltaire,  or  Paine  ;  and  were  the  succes- 
sors only  to  an  inglorious  war,  of  which  the  conquest  and 
the  laurels  had  been  won  before  they  were  born. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES. 


AN  EXPLICATION  OF    SOME  TERMS  AND    ABBREVIATIONS  WHICH  OCCUR 
IN    ECCLESIASTICAL    HISTORY. 

A.U.,  Anno  Urbis,  is  the  year  of  the  foundation  of  the  city  of 
Rome,*  according  to  Varro's  account. 

A.U.C.,  Jlnno  Urbis  Conditce,  or  Anno  ab  Urbe  Condita,  is  the 
same  sense  more  fully  expressed,  L  e.  in  the  year  from  the  building 
of  the  city. 

A.D.,  ./2nno  Uoimni,  or  the  year  of  the  Lord.  Since  the  con- 
version of  Constantino,  a.d.  311,  it  denotes  the  vulgar  Christian 
aera,  according  to  which  Christ  is  supposed  to  have  been  born  Dec, 
25,  in  the  45th  of  the  Julian  period,  and  754th  from  the  build- 
ing of  Rome.  This  calculation,  though  serving  the  purposes  of 
general  reading,  is  known  to  be  defective.  Lardner  says,  "  Our 
Saviour  was  born  in  the  reign  of  Herod  the  Great."  But  it  is  cer- 
tain that  Herod  died  before  the  Passover,  a.u.  752,  very  probably 
in  a.u.  750  or  751. 

We  learn  from  Josephus,t  that  the  Procuratorship  of  Pontius 
Pilate  corresponded  with  the  last  ten  years  of  the  Empeor  Tiberi- 
us :  that  is,  from  a.d.  27  to  a.d.  35.  As  to  the  particular  time  of 
the  death  of  Christ,  a  very  early  tradition  fixed  it  to  the  25th  of 
.  March,  a.d.  29,  under  the  consulship  of  the  two  Gemini.J  This 
date  is  adopted  by  Pagi,  Cardinal  Norris,  and  Le  Clerc.  The  vul- 
gar lera  places  it,  without  any  known  reason,  four  years  later. 

The  Julian  Period  is  an  epoch,  so  called  from  Julius  Caesar. 

*  Romulus  commenced  the  building  of  Rome  about  751  years  before  the  Christ- 
ian acrti. 

t  Antiquitat.  18,  3.  tTertullian,  adv.  Judaeos.c.  8. 


APPENDIX.  425 

The  first  year  of  this  epoch,  when  Csesar's  reformation  of  the 
Roman  year  look  place,  commences  the  first  of  January,  a.  u.  709. 

A.  M.,  Jinno  Mtindi,  i.  e.  the  year  of  the  world,  ridiculously 
fixed  at  4004  before  the  birth  of  Christ.  Julius  Africanus,  a 
Christian  chronologist,  who  wrote  a.  d.  220,  insists  that  the 
world  was  made  on  the  first  of  September,  and  was  exactly 
5508  years,  three  months,  and  twenty-five  days  old  at  the  birth 
of  Christ.  The  learned  Dr.  Lightfoot  thinks  he  can,  with  great 
probability,  settle  the  precise  time  when  the  Christian  covenant 
began.  He  says,  that  "  Adam  was  created  on  Friday  morning, 
at  nine  o'clock  ;  that  he  ate  the  forbidden  fruit  about  one,  (that 
being  the  time  of  eating)  ;  and  that  Christ  was  promised  about 
three  o'' clock  in  the  afternoon."  So  nicely  accurate  is  our  religious 
chronology. 

But  never  be  it  forgotten,  that  the  application  of  chronology 
to  matters  of  faith,  is  entirely  of  modern  invention.  The  Apostles 
themselves,  and  the  most  primitive  fathers,  who  understood  every 
thing  allegorically,  never  dreamed  of  giving  us  any  more  particular 
indications  of  date  to  the  sacred  story  than  the  common  preface 
to  a  fable,  "And  it  came  to  pass  in  those  days."  There  are  no 
references  to  contemporary  circumstances  in  the  New  Testament, 
but  such  as  are  outrageously  at  variance  with  historical  fact. 
Those  whom  we  should  be  taught  to  speak  of  as  living  in  the  first 
time  of  Christianity,  speak  of  themselves  as  existing  in  the  last 
time,  and  as  knowing  it  was  the  last  time.*  Those  who  are 
believed  to  have  flourished  when  Christianity  was  in  its  most 
primitive  purity,  complain  of  the  prevalence  of  its  universal  corrup- 
tion. Justin  Martyr,  the  first  of  the  Christian  apologists,  is  out  in 
his  chronology  to  the  difference  of  300  years,  and  makes  Ptolemy, 
king  of  Egypt,  and  Herod,  king  of  Jerusalem,  contemporaries.! 

THE  REIGNS  AND  ORDER  OF  SUCCESSION  OF  THE  ROMAN 
EMPERORS,  DURING  THE  FOUR  FIRST  CENTURIES  OF  THE 
CHRISTIAN   .ffiRA. 

First  Century.  a.  d. 

Augustus,    having  reigned  44    years  from    the    defeat    of 
Mark  Antony,  and  57  from  the  death  of  Julius   Caesar, 

died,         -        -        -        -        -        -        -        August  19,  14 

Tiberius,  began  his  reign,       -        -        -        -    August  19,  14 

Caligula,  began  his  reign,            -        -        -          March  16,  37 

Claudius,        -        -        -        -        -        -            January  24,  41 

Nero,          -        -        -        -        -        -        -       October  13,  54 

Galea,  reigned  from        -        -     June  9,  68,  to  January  15,  69 

Otho,           _        -        -        -      January  15,  69,  to  April  16,  — 

*  John  ii.  18. 

t  On  is  nroXiftaio?  o  atyvTiTioov  j?a<Tti»vj  n^oatnifix^  '"o  fuv  isdaimv  tot* 
paadsvoni  ■H^v)ii\>-^'Apol.  1,  p.  49. 


426  APPENDIX. 

A.D. 

ViTELLius,  reigned  from        -     June  2,  69,  to  December  21,    — 
Vespasian,  began  his  reign,       .        -        -        -  July  1,     69 

Titus  ,  _-..---  June  24,     79 

DoMiTiAN,        _---_-      September  13,    81 
Nerva  ------          September  18,    96 

Trajan,  --__--         January  27,    98 

Second  Century. 
Adrian  began  hia  reign,      -        -        -        -  August  10,  117 

Antoninus  Pius,      ------  July  10,  138 

M.  Antoninus  Verus  Aurelius,  the  Philosopher,        March  7,  161 

Commodus,  March  17,  180 

Helvius  Pertinax,        _        _        -        .        -    Decerbber31,   192 
Didius  Julianus,      -        -        -        -        -        -      March  28,  193 

Septimius  Se verus,      -        -        -        -        -        -    April  13,  193 

Third   Century. 
Septimius  Severus  reigned  to,    -        -        -        -        -        -211 

Antoninus  Caracalla,      -------        220 

Macrinus,  -  -------     221 

Antoninus  Heliogabalus,         ------        224 

Alexander,        ---------237 

Maximinius,  --------        240 

Gordianus,        -        -        -'-        -        -        -        -        -    246 

Philip, 254 

Deciua,  _»-------    255 

Gallus,  ^milianus,  three  months,  -        -        -        -        266 

Valerianus,  and  his  son  >  _        ^        _        _        ^        -271 

Galienus,  5 

Claudius,      -        -        -        - 273 

Quintilius,  only  seventeen  days  in,     -        -        -        -        -    273 

Aurelianus,  --------        276 

Tacitus,  only  six  months,     ------)    ^ 

Florinus  reigned  80  days,       ------j^ 

Probus,  ---------    285 

Carus,  --- 287 

Diocletian,       ---------    307 

Fourth  Century. 
Diocletian  reigned  with  ?,_.,..        oa- 
Maximianus,  ^        -----        - 

Constantius  with  )      _        ^        _        ^        «jj» 

Maximinus,  Constantius  surviving,    ^      "        •        •        •        3l<» 
Constantinus  Magnus,        -------    33$ 

Constantius,  jun.,  Constantius,  and  Constans,  -        -        365 

Julian,  began  Dec.  11,  365,  died,       -----    367 

Jovian,  only  seven  months, 

Valentinianus,  --------    378 

Talentinianus,  jun.,  Gratianus,  and  Theodosius  Magnus,  -       399 


APPENDIX.  427 

THE  NAMES  AND  ORDER  OF    3TTCCESSI0N    OF    THE  CHRISTIAN  FATHERS. 

All  who  lived  and  wrote  at  any   time  within  the  first  century,  so 
as  to  fall  within  a  supposition  of  the  possibility  of  their  having  seen 
or  conversed  with  any  one  or  more  of  the  Apostles  themselves,  are 
on  that  account  called 

The  JJposiolic  Fathers. 
These  are  five  only  :  a.d. 

St.  Barnabas         -------- 

St.  Clement,  Bishop  of  Rome,  called  therefore  Clemens  Ro* 

manus         __-_---  98 

St.  Hermas,  brother  to  Pius,  Bishop  of  Rome,         -         -  100 

St.  Ignatius,  Bishop  of  Antioch,         -         -         -         _         - 
St.  Polycarp,  Bishop  of  Smyrna,  -         -         _         _         - 

Fathers  of  the  Second  Century. 
Papias,  Bishop  of  Hierapolis,         -----  lOl 

Quadratus,  a  prophet  and  apologist,  -         -         -         -      119 

Aristides,  an  Athenian  philosopher  and  apologist,       -         -        121 
-Slgesippus,  an  ecclesiastical  historian,         -         _         -         -    130 
Justin  Martyr,         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -140 

Melito,  Bishop  of  Sardis,        -         -        -         -         -        -         141 

ApoUinaris,  apologist,         -         -         -         -         -         -         -163 

Dionysius,  Bishop  of  Corinth,         -         -         -         -         -         167 

Theophilus,  Bishop  of  Antioch,         -         -         -         -         -       181 

Irenseus,  Bishop  of  Lyons,         ------     182 

Pantsenus,  Master  of  the  Alexandrine  school,         -         -  193 

Clemens  Alexandrinus.  -         -        -        -         -         -         194 

Fathers  of  the  Third  Century. 
Tertullian,  a  priest  of  Carthage,         _         _         -         -         -     202 

Minutius  Felix, 210 

Origen,  -        -        -         -         -         -         -        -         -       230 

St.  Gregory,  the  wonder  worker,         -----     243 

Cyprian,  Bishop  of  Carthage,         -         -         -         -         -         248 

Novatian,  aspirant  to  the  see  of  Rome.         -         -         -  -  251 

Lucian,  Presbyter  of  Antioch.         -----        290 

Fathers  of  the  Fourth  Ceniunj. 
Peter,  tenth  Bishop  of  Alexandria,         -         -         -         -  goO 

Arnobius         ---------      306 

Lactantius        ---------    316 

Arius,  and  his  follower,         ------  316 

Eusebius,  Bishop  of  Csesarea,         -         -         -         -         -        316 

Constantine,  Emperor,         -         -         -         -         -         -         -316 

Athanasius,  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  -         -         -         _         326 

Damasus,  Pope  of  Rome,         ------       370 

Basil  the  Great,  Bishop  of  Csesarea,  in  Cappadocia,         -         370 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  -         -        -         -        -        -        -    370 

Gregory,  Bishop  of  Nyssa  in  Cappadocia,         -        -         -       371 
Ambrose,  Archbishop  of  Milan,  -        _         -         _        _     374 

Jerome,  Presbyter  and  Monk,         -         -         -        _        .         392 
Augustin,  Bishop  of  Hippo  Regius,  in  Africa,    ...     395 


l^S  APPEITDIX. 

vhrysostom,  Bishop  of  Constantinople,         -     '     -  -  398 

innocent  I.,  Pope  of  Rome,         _        -         _        -  _      400 

THE      NAMES      ANB      ORDER     OF       SUCCESSION      OF       THE       CHRISTIAN 
HERETICS 

The  Apostolic  Heretics. 

Hymenaeus. 

Alexander. 

Philetus. 

Hermogenes. 

Demas. 

Diotrephes. 

Dositheus,  a  Samaritan,  who  set  himself  up  as  the  Messiah. 

Simon  Magus,  styling  himself //te  great fower  of  God. 

Menander,  a  pupil  of  Simon  Magus. 

Nicolas,  founder  of  the  sect  of  Nicolaitans,  mentioned  2  Rev. 
6.  14.  15. 

Cerinthus,  against  whom  St.  John  wrote  his  gospel. 

Basilides,  who  taught  that  it  was  Simon  the  Cyrenian,  and  not 
Jesus,  who  was  crucified  ;  while  Christ  stood  by  and  laughed  at 
the  mistake  of  the  Jews  ;  his  notion  was  adopted  by  Mahomet,  and 
is  seriously  maintained  in  the  Koran. 

Carpocrates,  worshipped  images  of  Jesus,  Paul,  Pythagoras, 
Plato,  and  Aristotle,  &.c.,  as  having  equal  claims  on  human  super- 
stition. 


HERETICS    OF    THE    SECOND    CENTURY, 

Nazarenes,  a  continuation  of  the  Therapeuts, 

Ebionites,  a  poor  sect  of  Unitarians,  who  fell  into  the  wild  con- 
ceit that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  mere  mortal  man,  and  had  a  corporeal 
existence. 

A.D.  114.  Elkai,  founder  of  the  sect  of  the  Elcesaites,  who 
maintained,  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  certain  power,  whose  height 
was  24  schsenia,  i.  e.  66  miles,  his  breadth  24  miles,  and  his 
thickness  proportionably  wonderful. 

They  who  receive  the  book  called  the  Acts,  or  Journies  of  the 
A-postles,  Peter,  John,  Andrew,  Thomas,  and  Paul, — says  the 
(earned  and  pious  Jeremiah  Jones,  must  believe  that  Christ  was 
aot  really,  but  only  appeared  as  a  man ;  and  was  seen  by  his 
disciples  in  various  forms,  sometimes  as  a  young  man,  sometimes 
ts  an  old  one,  sometimes  as  a  child,  sometimes  great,  sometimes 
mall,  sometimes  so  tall,  that  his  head  would  reach  the  clouds, 
hat  he  was  not  crucified  himself,  but  another  in  his  stead, 
vhile  he  stood  by  and  laughed  at  the  mistake  of  those  who 
imagined  that  they  crucified  him.  Jones  on  the  Canon,  vol.  1, 
f.   12. 

Saturninus  of  Antioch. 

Cerdo  of  Syria. 


APPENDIX.  429 

Marcion  of  Pontus. 

Valentine  of  Egypt. 

Bardesanes  of  Edessa. 

Tatian  of  Assyria. 

Theodotus. 

Artemon. 

Hermogenes. 

Montanus. 

It  would  be  idle  to  attempt  to  assign  to  each  heresiarch  the 
particular  tenets  upon  which  his  sect  was  founded.  To  the  variety 
of  combinations  which  tnadness  may  form,  madness  only  would 
seek  for  detinitions,  or  care  for  them. 

Were  there  ever  any  two  congregations  of  Christians  in  all  the 
w^orld,  who  exactly  agree  in  telling  the  Christian  story  in  every 
respect  in  the  same  way  ^  They  who  were  nearest  to  the  foun- 
tain head,  were  farthest  from  consistency.  Upwards  of  ninety  dif- 
ferent heresies  are  admitted  to  have  existed  within  the  three  first 
centuries. 


JEWISH    AUTHORS. 

A.D,  40.  Philo  JudfEus,  a  native  of  Alexandria,  of  a  priest's 
family,  and  brother  to  the  alabarch,  or  chief  Jewish  magistrate 
in  that  city.     See  the  large  use  of  his  testmony  by  Eusebius,  given  in 

this  DXEGESIS. 

A.D.  67.  T.  Flavins  Josephus,  the  well  known  historian,  or 
rather  mythographist  of  the  Jewish  wars. 

The  version  or  first  translation  of  the  Jewish  scriptures  into 
Greek,  made  by  70  or  72  translators  called  in  proof,  the  Septua- 
gint  is  properly  the  Alexandrian  version,  as  having  been  made 
at  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  about  250  years  b.  c.  Not  only  the 
Old  Testament,  but  the  New,  was  entirely  concocted  and  got 
up  by  these  Egyptian  monks,  who  from  their  far  famed  university 
of  Alexandria,  dealt  out  at  their  pleasure,  the  credenda  that  have 
since  regulated  the  faith,  and  subjugated  the  reason  of  man- 
kind. In  a  word,  we  owe  every  iota  of  the  Christian  religion 
to  the  Egyptian  monks,  and  the  facilities  afforded  for  overbear- 
ing the  resistance  of  reason  and  common  sense,  by  the  collecting 
and  bringing  together  of  all  the  powers  of  imposture  into  the  first 
of  these  mischievous  and  wicked  cabals,  those  chartered  pha- 
lanxes of  confederated  knaves,  which  have  since  been  called 
unive^'sities . 

A.D.  128.  Aquila  of  Pontus,  a  Gentile  convert  to  the  Christian 
faith,  lapsed  into  Judaism,  and  translated  the  Old  Testament. 

A.D.  175.  Theodotion,  also  a  Gentile  convert,  lapsed  into 
Judaism,  and  made  a  very  literal  version  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures. 

A.D.  201.  Symmachus,  a  Samaritan,  first  adhered  to  the  Jews, 
then  turned  Christian,  and  afterwards  turned  Jew  again  ;  made 


430  APPENDIX. 

a  new,   but  rather  paraphrastical,    translation   of  the    Old   Tes- 
tament. 


THE    NAME    AND    ORDER    OF    SUCCESSION    OF    WRITERS    WHO    HAVE 
DIRECTLY    OPPOSED    THE    CHRISTIAN    FAITH. 

The  principal  are  : — 1,  Celsus  ;  2,  Hierocles  ;  3,  Porphyry  ;  and 
4,  Julian. 

Of  these,  the  writings  only  of  the  Emperor  Julian,  who  comes 
far  too  late  in  time  to  be  of  consideration---have  come  down  to   us. 

We  have  nothing  from  the  pen  of  Celsus,  but  what  Origen,  who 
attempted  to  refute  him  a  hundred  years,  after,  has  chosen  to  affili- 
ate upon  him. 

We  gather  that  Hierocles  opposed  the  character  of  the  philoso- 
pher ApoUonius  of  Tyana,  as  a  real  character  and  a  better  exam- 
ple of  moral  perfection,  than  the  imagined  hero  of  the  gospel. 

Porphyry  acquired  the  surname  of  the  virtuous;  and  brought  such 
formidable  objections  to  the  Christian  story,  that  all  his  real  writings 
were  by  the  order  of  the  Christian  Emperor  Theodosius,  committed 
to  the  llames  ;  and  such  writings  only  as  Christians  themselves  had 
forged,  permitted  to  come  down  to  posterity  under  his  name. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    HISTORIANS. 

A.D.  315.  Eusebius,  Bishop  of  Csesarea. 

A.D.  423.  Theodoret  of  Antioch,  Bishop  of  Cyrus. 

A.D.  439.  Socrates  of  Constantinople,  a  lawyer  or  pleader, 
hence  sometimes  called  Scholasticus.  He  wrote  an  ecclesiastical 
history  from  the  accession  of  Constaiitine,  a.  d.  309,  to  a.  d.  439, 
with  uncommon  judgment  and  diligence. 

A.D.  440.  Sozomen  (Hcrmias)  of  Bethelia,  near  Gaza,  in  Pal- 
estine, composed  a  history  of  the  same  period,  as  the  two  prece- 
ding writers  ;  his  style  is  superior  to  that  of  Socrates  ;  but  his 
judgment  must  be  inferior. 

A.D.  425.  Philostorgius  of  Cappadocia,  wrote  a  history  of  about 
a  hundred  years  from  a.  d.  325. 

A.D.  595.  Evagrius  Scholasticus,  Prsefect  of  Antioch.  His 
Ecclesiastical  History  extends  from  a.  d.  431,  to  a.  d.  594.  "  It  is 
much  loaded"  says  Elsley   "  with  credulous  accounts  of  miracles." 

A.D.  401.  Sulpitius  Severus,  a  Latin  Historian,  of  Aquitane, 
m  France,  and  a  priest,  has  left  us  a  little  history  of  the  world, — 
brought  down  to  a.  d.  400. 

A.D.  1333.  Niccphorus  Callistus,  a  monk  of  Constantinople. 
His  history  is  weak  and  full  of  idle  fables. 

THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    COUNCILa 

A.D.  1.  The  first  held  at   Jerusalem,  was  a  meeting   of  king 


APPENDIX.  431 

Herod  and  all  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  of  the  people,  with  the 
wise  men  of  the  east,  to  inquire  where  Christ  should  be  born, 

A.D.  12.  "A  council  of  priests,  whereat  Jesus  Christ  was 
admitted  into  the  holy  order  of  priesthood, — a  jury  of  midwives 
having  been  impanneled,  and  upon  due  scrutiny  had,  on  the  body 
of  his  mother,  having  given  in  their  unanimous  verdict,  that  her 
virginity  remained  m/acf." — So  far  the  learned  Suidas,  as  he  learn- 
ed of  a  Jew. 

A.D.  32.  Council  of  chief  priests  to  make  their  bargain  with 
Judas  Iscariot  for  the  arrest  of  Jesus  Christ. 

A.D.  32,  A  Council  of  chief  priests  to  defeat  the  testimony  of 
the  soldiers  who  kept  the  sepulchre. 

A.D.  32.  Council  of  the  Apostles  to  elect  Matthias  into  the 
apostleship  in  the  room  of  the  traitor  Judas. 

GENERAL    COUNCILS. 

A.D.  47.  Council  of  the  Apostles  concerning  circumcision. — 
Ads  of  the  Jfpostles. 

A.D.  66.  Council  of  the  Apostles  to  elect  Simeon  Cleophas 
2nd  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  to  succeed  James. 

A.D.  70.  Council  in  which  the  apostohc  canons  are  pretended 
to  have  been  agreed  on. 

A.D,  99.  Council  of  Ephesus  for  the  reformation  of  the 
churches  and  consecration  of  Bishops,  at  which  John  the  Evan- 
gelist v/as  present  ;  and  being  a  priest,  as  we  learn  from  Polycrates, 
who  had  the  advantage  of  him  in  being  a  bishop,  wore  a  *  scq,pula- 
ry  or  surplice. 

A.D,  163,  The  Council  of  Ancyra  in  Galatia,  to  suppress  the 
errors  of  Montanus. 

A,D,  179,  Councils  in  France  and  Asia,  against  the  heresy  of 
Montanus. 

A,D.  193.  Council  at  Rome  touching  the  celebration  of  Easter. 
Victor  Bishop  of  Rome,  excommunicated  all  the  eastern  churches, 
for  their  difference  on  this  subject, 

A.D.  246.  Fabianus,  Pope  of  Rome,  miraculously  elected  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  perching  upon  his  head  in  the  shape  of  a  dove  ; 
in  synod  denounced  the  schism  of  Novatus. 

A.D.  254.  Council  of  Carthage  under  its  President,  Cyprian, 
fell  into  the  heresy  of  re-baptizing  heretics. 

A.D.  271.  A  first  and  second  council  of  Antioch,  for  the  con- 
demnation of,  and  degradation  of  its  Bishop,  Paul  of  Samosata. 

A.D.  295.  Grand  Council  of  300  bishops  and  30  priests,  at 
Sinuessa,  where  Marcellinus,  Bishop  of  Rome,  was  condemned  for 
denying  Christ,  and  sacrificing  to  idols- 

*  Kai  iwari'f/c  o  tni  ra  artj-^og  rs  xvqin  avantdi&v,  o;  tysvi^STj  ie^ei;?  to  7TcTaXo9 
7ts(poQriy.w? — And  John,  who  leaned  on  the  Lord's  bosom,  who  having  become  a 
priest  wore  a  petalon. — Euseb.  lib.  3.  c.  25. — Popish  trumpery  so  soon  in 
fashion  I 


432  APPENDIX. 

A.D.  307.  Council  of  Ancyra,  where  such  as  sacrificed  to  idols, 
were  allowed  to  be  received  under  certain  conditions,  and  deacons 
who  could  not  contain,  were  suffered  to  marry. 

A.D.  327.  Grand  Council  of  Nice  in  Bythinia,  under  the  pres- 
idency of  Constantine  the  Great,  gave  us  the  God  of  God  creed 
used  in  the  communion  service.  Pappus,  in  his  Synodicon  to  the 
council  of  Nice,  asserts,  that  having  promiscuously  put  all  the 
books  under  the  communion  table  in  a  church,  they  besought  the 
Lord,  that  the  inspired  records  might  get  upon  the  table,  while 
the  spurious  ones  remained  underneath,  which  accordingly  hap- 
pened.* 

A.D.  368.  Council  of  Laodicea.  This  council  first,  and  not 
that  of  Nice,  is  supposed  to  have  given  a  catalogue  of  the  books 
contained  in  the  New  Testament  :  not  including  the  Revelation. 

A.D,  397.  The  third  council  of  Carthage  ;  present,  Aurelius, 
Bishop  of  Carthage  ;  Augustin,  Bishop  of  Hippo,  and  42  other 
bishops.  Of  this  council,  the  47th  Canon  ordains,  ''  that  nothing 
beside  the  canonical  scriptures  be  read  in  the  church  under  the 
name  of  divine  scriptures."  All  those  contained  and  arranged 
as  in  our  present  Old  and  New  Testaments,  are  in  this  canon 
enumerated  as  being  canonical. 

A.D.  401.  The  council  of  Chalcedon.  Here  firstthe  New  Tes- 
tament was  set  in  the  midst  of  the  assembly,  as  the  great  appeal. 
Yet  St.  Chrysostom,  who  died  a.d.  407,  assures  us,  that  in  his  time, 
tlje  Acts  of  the  Apostles  was  a  book  by  many  Christians,  entirely 
unknown. 

"  The  canon  of  the  New  Testament,"  says  Dr.  Lardner,  "  had 
not  been  settled  by  any  authority  that  was  decisive  and  universally 
acknowledged,  but  Christian  people  were  at  liberty  to  judge  for 
themselves,  concerning  the  genuineness  of  writings  proposed  to 
them  as  apostolical  ;  and  to  determine  according  to  evidence." 
Even  so  late  as  in  the  time  of  the  historian  Cassiodorus,!  whom 
Dr.  Lardner  places  at  a.d.  556. 

There  are  reckoned  in  all  17  general  councils,  but  the  rest  of 
them  are  too  late  in  time,  or  too  irrelevant  to  any  bearing  on  the 
historical  evidences  of  Christianity,  to  come  within  the  scope  of 
this  DiEGEsis — the  council  of  Trent,  a.d.  1549,  is  the  last  of  them. 

Augustus  the  monk  first  preached  Christianity  in  England 
A.D.  597. 

The  inhabitants  of  England  being  Fids,  or  painted  savages, 
first  embraced  Christianity,  a.d.  698.  Clironol.  Table  of  Evcuis^s 
Sketches. 

*  Ev  yuQ  oiKuf  rov  Ocov  y.aroi  mtQa  tj;  Stia  TgoTrtLj;  avra?  TcaQa-dentri],  nQoa^v- 
^aro  lag  tvQt&tjiat  rag  ^tonnvaxovi;  tnavin,  tov  KvQiov  t^aittiaa^icrtj,  xui  tuj 
Ki^StjXovs,  0  xai  Yty"'''*^''  vTioxaiwfltv. 

+  Senator  and  Complier  of  the  Tripartite  History,  i.  e.  the  Ecclesiastical  Histo- 
ries of  Socrates,  Sozomen,  and  Theodoret  united. — See  this  argument  handled  in 
my  Syntagma  p.  ()8.  Published  from  this  prison  in  refutation  of  the  infinite  vitu- 
perations of  the  Christian  Instruction  Society. 


APPENDIX. 

43a 

ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES. 

Expenditme  of  the  Clergy  of  all  the  Christian  World. 

Nations. 

Denomina- 
tions. 

Number  of 
Hearers. 

Payment  to 
Clergy. 

Total 
Payment. 

England,     and 
Wales. 

^  Prots 

6,000,000 

7,596,000  ■^ 

i  Calhs.  &c. 

6,000,000 

513,000 

(  Prots 

400,000 

1,300,000 

Ireland. 

]  Caths 

C  other  Sects 

5,500,000 
1,100,000 

I     261,000  r 

9,920,000 

(  Presbyts 
I  Caths 

1,754,824 

206,000 

Scotland. 

50,000 

44,000  J 

C  Caths 
{  Prots 

29,000,000 

1,030,000  ^ 
20,000  5 

1,050,000 

France. 

1,000,100 

Spain. 
Portugal. 

Caths 

11,000,000 

1,100,000 

1,100,000 

Catlis 

3,000,000 

300,000 

300,000 

(  Caths 
i  Prots 

4,000,000 

320,000  } 

409,000 

Hungary. 

1,700,000 

89,000  5 

Italy. 

Caths 

19,391,000 

776,000 

776,000 

C  Caths 

15,918,000 

800,000 ^ 

Austria. 

^  Prots 

1,000,000 

50,000 C 

887,000 

(  Greeks 

2,000,000 

37,000  ) 

Switzerland. 

C  Catlis 
I  Prots 

600,000 
1,120,000 

30,000  ^ 
57,000  5 

87,000 

Prussia. 

C  Caths 
I  Plots 

4,000,000 
6,,536,000 

200,000  ^ 
327,000  5 

527,000 

German  States- 

C  Caths 
>  Prots 

4,763,000 
8,000,000 

285,000  > 
480,000  5 

;765,000 

C  Caths 
I  Prots 

700,000 

56,000  I 
104,000  5 

160,000 

Holland. 

1,300,000 

Netherlands. 

Caths 

3,000,000 

105,000 

105,000 

Denmark. 

Prots 

1,700,000 

119,000 

119,000 

Sweden. 

Prots 

8,400,000 

238,000 

238,000 

C  Caths 

5,500,000 

275,000^ 

Russia. 

)  Prots 

2,500,000 

125,000  V 

1,000,000 

I  Greeks 

84,000,000 

600,000  5 

Turkey. 

C  Caths 
{  Greeks 

1,000,000 

30,000  I 
123,000  5 

153,000 

5,000,000 

North  America. 

C  Prots 
)  Caths 

9,100,000 
500,0000 

546,000  I 
30,000  5 

576,000 

South  America. 

Caths 

15,000,000 

450,000 

450,000 

Dispersed      > 

C  Caths 
^  Prots 

1,500,000 

75,000  ) 

150,000 

Christians  ) 

1,500,000 

75,000  3 

119,532,824 

18,772,000 

Great  Bi 

itain  for 
,for 

20,804,824 

pays 
)        to  pay  only 

9,920,000 

Leaving 

198,728,00( 

8,852,000 

;                   REC: 

VPITULATION    OF    THE 

PRECEDING    TABLE. 

Protestants,  &c. 

48,110,824  pay  their  Clerg) 

^           -         -           £11,462,500 

Catholics, 

130,422,000 

6,549,500 

Greek  Church, 

41,000,000 

pay  their  Clerg 

y,        -        - 

760,000 

Total  Christians 

219,532,824 

£18,772,000 

Grt.  Britain,  for 

20,804,824  people  pays 
198,728,000  people  to  pay  c 

nly 

9,920,000 

Leaving,  for 

£8,852,000 

434 


EXTENT    OF    CHRISTIANITY, 

If  we  divide  the  known  countries  of  the  earth,  into  thirty  equal 
parts,  five  of  them  are  Christian,  six  Mahometan,  and  nineteen 
Pagan. — BuyWs  Dictionary. 

Dr.  Evans  supposing  the  inhabitants  of  the  world  to  be  eight 
hundred  millions  ;  gives  us  the  annexed  scale  of  probable  pro- 
portions. 

Jews 2,500,000 

Pagans 482,000,000 

Christians 175,000,000 

Mahommedans      ------  140,000,000 

Subdivision  of  Christians. 
Greek  and  Eastern  Churches             -        -        _        30,000,000 
Roman  Catholics         --._.-     80,000,000 
Protestants 65,000,000 


Total  number  of  Christians         -         -        _       175,000,000 

In  this,  which  is  wholly  Christian  arithmetic,  no  account  is 
made  of  the  probable  proportion  of  either  professed  or  real  unbe- 
lievers, whose  number,  be  it  greater  or  less,  is  on  all  hands 
admitted  to  be  an  increasing  number,  and  a  number  to  be 
deducted,  not  from  the  amount  of  Jews,  Pagans,  or  Mohamme- 
dans ;  but  exclusively  from  the  amount  of  Christians ;  and  in  the 
amount  of  Christians,  chiefly  from  the  most  intelligent,  reflecting, 
and  literary  characters,  that  is  unquestionably  from  the  very  nerves 
and  core  of  their  strength. 

Let  their  own  statement  be  credible — e.  g.  Dr.  Priestley  observes 
in  one  of  his  last  sermons,  that  when  he  visited  France  in  1774, 
all   her  philosophers  and  men  of  letters  were  absolutely  infidels.* 

Dr,  Evans  who  died  Jan.  24,  1827,  had  announced  his  plan  of 
a  work,  which  he  lived  not  to  finish,  whose  professed  object,  in  his 
own  terms,  was  to  shield  the  minds  of  the  rising  generation,  from 
the  growing  evil  of  the  age,  an  overweening  and  clamorous  in- 
fidelity.! 

The  whole  united  Scottish  Presbytery,  in  a  dolorous  Jeremiad, 
publicly  announce,  that  all  the  most  intelligent  and  accomplished 
men  among  them,  have  imbibed  the  principles  of  infidelity. 
Their  own  words  are,  "  O  God,  pity  us,  for  our  case  is  very 
pitiful,  and  there  is  nobody  else  to  pity  tts,  bid  only  tJiou, 
O  God  !  And  not  now  is  it  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord 
in  the  parable,  that  one  sheep  should  be  astray,  and  ninety 
and  nine  safely  gathered  into  the  fold,  but  that  the  ninety  and  nine 
should  be   straying  and   only   one   abiding   in   the  fold. "J    Yet 

*  Quoted  thus  in  Evans's  Sketches,  15th  ed.  p.  5. 

t  Evans's  Sketches,  15th  ed.  pref.  xv. 

i  Pastoral  Letter  from  the  Scottish  Preshytery  1827,  p.  39, 


435 


these  zealous  advocates  of  the  Christian  cause  affect  to  treat  their 
adversaries,  who  are  thus  gaining  the  march  upon  them,  it  seems, 
at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  to  one,  as  objects  of  unmingled  contempt. 
It  is  not  in  the  power  of  hmguage  to  exceed  the  tone  of  bitter  re- 
vihng  and  caustic  scorn  with  which  the  followers  of  the  ima- 
gined meek  and  holy  Jesus  speak  of  all  who  call  tbeir  pretensions 
in  question.  The  odmm  theologicwn,  or  theological  hatred,  has 
become  a  proverb,  indicating  that  no  hatred  is  so  intense  and  im- 
placable, as  that  of  the  professors  of  a  rehgion  of  long-suffering 
and  forgiveness. 


AUTHORITIES  ADDUCED   IN   THE   DIEGESIS. 


Dr.  Whitby's  Last  Thoughts,  3. 

Elsley's  Annotations  on  the  Gospels,  5, 
23S,  247,  256. 

Tacitus,  7,  394. 

Virjril,  9,  142,  155,  216,  220,  328, 
358. 

Mosheiin's  Ecclesiastical  History,  10, 
13,  14,  16,  18,  34,36,  44. 

Jones  on  the  Canon  of  the  New  Test. 
11. 

Orosius,  13,  398. 

Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire,  14,  15,  31,  82,  SI, 
144,  195,  282,  283,  328. 

Rfilton's  Paradise  Lost,  15,  16,  181, 
188,  337. 

Pope's  Homer's  Iliad,  15. 

Matrimonial  Service,  16. 

Le  Clerc,  Latin  JYote,  19,  120. 

Dr.  Lardner,  19,  27,  41,  44,  93,  108, 
113,  114,  117,  138,  144,  145,  146. 

Unitarian  Version  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, 19,  116,  216,  378. 

Archbishop  Newcomb,  19. 

Hutchinson,  23. 

Shaw's  Travels,  23. 

Shakspeare,  24,  296. 

Parkhurst's  Hebrew  Lexicon,  24,  155, 
158,  160,  161, 162,  183,189. 

A  Friend,  25. 

Josephus,  Greek,  27,  59,  96. 

Eusebius,  Greek,  28,  64,69,70,71, 
72,  73,  74,75,76,  77,  85. 

Valerius  Maximus,  29. 

Author's  Syntagma,  31,  32,  34,  89, 
129,  271,  352,  368. 

Pseudo  Plutarch,  32. 

More's  Songs,  23. 

Juvenal,  23,  232,  466. 

Montlaucon,  60. 

Holyot,  60. 

Langc,  60. 

Hennian,  60 


Faustus,  66,  65,  114,  252,  371. 

Basnage,  78, 

Manifesto   of   the    Christian   Evidence 

Society,  80,  118. 
Evanson's    Dissonance    of    the    Four 

Gospels,  80,  102,  131,  133. 
Bretsclmeider's    Probabilia,    81,    132, 

136. 
Stein's  Authentia  Vindicata,  81,  117. 
Bishop  Sage's  Principles  of  the  Cypri- 

anic  age,  85,  344. 
Menander,  90, 
St.  Gregory,  101. 
St.  Athanasius,   101. 
Paley's  Horte  Paulinae,  109,  375. 
Reeve's  Preliminary  to  Vincentius,  117. 
Cave's  Ilistoria  Literaria,  118. 
Lessing,  122. 
Niemener,  122. 
Stalfeld  of  Gottingen,  124. 
Dr.  Eichhorn,  124. 
Bishop  Marsh,  128,  129. 
Philo  apud  Eusebium,  69,  70,71,72, 

73,  74. 
Julius  Firmicius,    144,  162,  163,  164, 

165,  303. 
Philo  apud  Eusebium,  142. 
Libanius,  145. 
Symmachus,  145. 
Origines  Christianee  in  Author's  Letters, 

145. 
St.  Ambrose,  146. 
Addison,  148,  285. 
Pope,  148,  215. 
Seneca's  Medea,  149. 
Eusebius,  150,  151,  164. 
Ovid,  150,  196,  232,  233,  293. 
Marinus,  151. 
Dr.  Lardner,  152,  206,  291,  294,  297, 

298,  305,  306,  312,  317. 
Justin  Martyr,    153,    232,    257,   258, 

314,315,  316,  317. 
Spence's  Polymetis,  155. 


436 


Orphic  Hymns,  155,  191,  197. 

Evansion,  157. 

•Judge  Blackstone,  157. 

Bishop  Kidder,  158. 

Oxford  Encyclopeedia,  159. 

Dr.  Kennecott's  Codices,  160. 

Spearman,  163. 

Dr.  Godvvyn,  163. 

Bryant's  Ancient  Hist.  167. 

Archbishop  Magee,  167,  361. 

Harris's  Hermes,  31. 

Vano,  33. 

Vosoius,  33,  180. 

Tcrtullian,    34,   257,   325,   326,    327, 

370,  395, 396. 
Evans's  Sketches,  34. 
Mr.  Beard,  of  Manchester,     35,    171, 

367. 
Archdeacon  Paley,  35,  109,  275,  361, 
Dr.  Chrysostom,  40,  268. 
Dr.  Mill,  48. 
Beausobro,  40,  58, 118, 125, 126,  295, 

30.S. 
Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,  41,  377, 
Arnobius,  42,  222,  384,  385. 
St.  Augustin,  42,  253,  255,  344. 
Lactantius,  42,  224,  231,  257,  325. 
Mous.  Daillee,  42,  45. 
Blount's  Philostratus,  43. 
Epiphanias,  43,  60,  121, 18-5. 
Bishop  Burnet,  43. 
Cicero,  43,   140,141,180,  182,211, 

233,  234. 
Cassaubon,  44. 
D-r.  H.  More,  44. 
Archbishop  Wake,  45,  55,  291. 
Dr.  Scmler,  47,  120,  131. 
Bell's   Pantheon,   48,   142,    143,  144, 

150,  165,  183,  184. 
Desmaiseaux's  Life  of  St.  Evremond, 

33. 
Times  New.spaper,  35. 
Mosheim,  47,  48,  52,  53,  61,  65,  98, 

99,  103,  116,  157,  174. 
Fabricius,  43, 174,  263,  264,  289,  300, 

305,  306,379,  381,  383,  405. 
Dr.  Tindal,  42. 
Works  of  Paulinus,  49. 
Dr.    lAIiddleton's    Letter   from    Rome, 

49,50,  .57,  236,  271,  275. 
Dr.    Middleton's    Free    Inquiry,    153, 

154,  230,  235,  340. 
Bishop  Stillinglleet,  50. 
Mons.  Turretin, 
Author's    Letter    from    Oakham,    50, 

225. 
Bishop  Fell,  54,  288. 
Mons.  Dupin,  55,  338. 
Origcn,  57,  92,  101,  121,  195,  389. 
Polybuis,  57. 


Grotius,  58. 

Bishop  Marsh,  59,  60. 

Dr.  Clagett,  57. 

Michaelis,  59,  60,  94,  95,  96,  97,  99, 

116,  117,256. 
Serarins,  59. 
Drusius,  60. 
Scaliger,  59,  116. 
Sir  William  Jones  in  Asiatic  Researches, 

168,  169,  170. 
Dr.  Bentley,  171. 
Dr.  John  Pye    Smith,   of   Homerton, 

171,  352. 
Valency,  174. 
Higgiiis's  Celtic  Druids,  176, 179,  209, 

224,  243,404. 
Colonel  Fitzclarence's  Travels,  178. 
Maurice's  Indian  Antiquities,  179. 
Quarle's  Emblems,  181. 
Dupuis,  184. 

Apocryphal  Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  184. 
Reeves's  Apologies  of  the  Fathers,  184. 
Gonzales,  185. 
Life  of  St.  Patrick,  185. 
Aurelius,  185. 
Volney,  186. 
Hesychius,  187. 
Anacreon,  187. 
Forney's  Pantheon    Mythircum,    189, 

236. 
Homer,  191. 
yEschylus,  192. 
Potter's  Translation  of,  198. 
Bishop  Watson,  195. 
Kortholt's   Paganus  Obtrectator,    197, 

202,  203,  247,  249. 
Minucius  Felix,  198,  254. 
Meagher,  199. 
Reeves's  Apologies,  199. 
Madame  Dacier,  200. 
Dr.   Edward  Daniel  Clarke's  Travels, 

202. 
Skelton's  Appeal,  202. 
Socrates  Scholasticus,  203,  205,  250, 

251,  252,  343,  345. 
Sozomenes,  205,  353. 
Prudentius,  207. 
Potter's  Antiquities,  207. 
Dicfearchus,  222. 
Menagius,  222. 

Tlieodoret,  224,  255,  257,  258. 
Soame  Jenyns,  224. 
Liturgy,  181,234. 
JVicene  Creed,  181. 
Apostles'  Creed,  184. 
Lucan,  217. 
Archbishop  TUlotson,  224,  226,  226, 

227,  228. 
Grutcr's  Inscriptions,  2S7. 
BoUonius's  Epigraphs,  237. 


APPENDIX. 


437 


Aringhus,  237. 

Onomacritus,  239. 

Mosheim  {continued)  212,    243,  250, 

367. 
Bell's  Pantheon  (continued)  213. 
Parkhurst  (continued)  216,  217. 
Sir  Wm.  Jones  (continued)  217,  243. 
Eusebius  (continued)  239,   257,  267, 

285,  296,  307,  308,  309. 
Parkhurst  (continued)  240. 
Dr.    Lardner  (continued)    246,    251, 

252,271,  262,285,291,304. 
Johnson's  Rambler,  241. 
Clerical  Review,  241. 
Watts's  Hymns,  242. 
Mr.  Adams,  of  Edmonton,  243. 
Mons.  Baillie,  243 
Confucius,  244. 
Cotelerius,  253,  368. 
St.  Jerom     253,  324,  330. 
Ignatius,  253. 
Paganus  Obtrectator  (continued)  257, 

396. 
Julian  apud  Cyrill,  259. 
Dorotheus,  262,  263,  -264,  265,  266, 

267,  291. 
Abdias's  Apostolic  History,  264,  265, 

266,  270. 
St.  Cyrill,  186. 
Sir  James  Scarlett,  275. 
St.  Barnabas,  290. 
St.  Clement,  291. 
Stalloicius,  300. 
Flavius  Dexter,  300. 
Montfaucon,  304. 
Gibbon   (continued)  309,  377,  386, 

392, 
Eusebius  (continued)   309,  311,  312, 

313,  317,322,  323. 
J.  H.  Esq.  unpublished,  309. 
Belsham's  Evidences,  310. 
Dionysius  Halicamasus,  316. 
Dr.    Lardner    (continued)    319,  321, 

323,324,331,332,339,342. 
Eusebius  (continued)   330,  347,  349, 

351,  363,  378,  381,  386. 
Suidas,  332,  333. 
Bellamy's  Origen,  49,  334,   335,  336, 

337. 
•  Dupin's  Bibl.  Origines,  338. 
Author's  Letters  from   Oakham,  345, 

350. 
Evagrius,  346. 
Socrates  Scholasticus  (continued)  346 j 

351,  352. 

38* 


Dr.    Lardner   (continued)   348,  349, 

350,  362,  364. 
Bibl.  Univer.  350. 
Zosimus,  352,  353. 
Baronius,  354. 
Pagi,  354. 
Saltonstall,  357. 
Sibylline  Verses,  357,  358. 
Evanson  (contimied)  365,  378. 
Catholic  Miracles,  365. 
Monsieur  Le  Clerc,  350. 
Dr.    Lardner    (conthiued)    364,   367 

368,  371,  374,  385,  388,  390. 
Toland's  Nazajeneus,  373. 
Maracci's  Koran,  374. 
Tombstone  in    Deptford   Churchyard, 

375. 
European  Magazine,  377. 
Macrobius,  377. 
Blount's  Philostratus,  381. 
Josephus,  385,  398. 

Author's  Orations   before  the  Areopa- 
gus, 287. 
Bryant's  Vindicise  Flavianse,  388. 
Dr.  Kippis,  388. 
Abbe  Bullet,  389. 

Leslie's   short  and   easy  Method  with 
Deists,  390. 

John  de  Ferraras,  391. 

Johannes  de  Spire,  393. 
Procopius,  392. 

Baronius,  392. 

Suetonius,  397,  398. 

Justin's  Apology,  Greek,  399. 

dementis  Strommata,  Greek,  399. 

St,  Jerom     Latin,  399. 

Dr.  Lardner  (continued)  398,  406. 

Theophilus  of  Antioch,  399. 

Pliny,  400. 

Dr.  Semler,  of  Leipsic,  400. 

Haversaas,  404. 

Gierig,  404. 

Corrode,  404. 

Jeremy  Xavier,  405. 

Epictetus'  Enchiridion,  406. 

Plutarch,  406. 

Emperor  Adrian,  407. 

Emperor  Antoninus,  408. 

Martial,  408. 

Lucius  Apuleius,  409. 

Lucian,  410. 

Dio  Prusaeus.  412. 

Arriau,  412. 


438 


APPENDIX. 


TEXTS  OF  SCRIPTURE  BROUGHT  INTO  ILLUSTRATION   IN  THE 
COURSE  OF  THIS  DIEGESIS. 


Exodus  ii.  10. 
Exodus  XX.  5.     - 
Numbers  xxiii.  19. 
Deuteronomy  xxiii.  1. 
Joshua  X.  12. 
Judges  i.  19.      - 
Judges  X.  42. 
Judges  xi.  24.     - 
1  Kings  ii.  8. 
1  Kings  xi.  1.     - 

1  Kings  xxii.  23.     - 

2  Kings  xxiii.     - 
2  Kings  xxii. 

2  Kings  ii.  11.     - 
2  Chronicles  xx.  21. 
Psalms.      _         -         - 
Psalm  ex.  1. 
Psalm  xxviii.  5. 
Psalm  ii.  9.         -         - 
Psalm  xc.     - 
Isaiah  xlv.  1.       -        - 
Isaiah  liii.  S.- 
Isaiah ix.  6. 
Isaiah  xi.  9.      - 
Isaiah  liii.  14. 
Ezekiel  xiv.  9.    - 
Ezekiel  viii.  4. 
Ezekiel  ix.  4,     - 
Daniel  iv.  26. 
Haggai  ii.  7,         -         - 
Malachi  iii.  20. 
Malachi  iv.  2.     - 
Malachi  iii.  4. 
Matthew  xxiv.  24. 

xvi.  29. 

xxii.  42.     - 

xxi.  25. 

ii.  1. 

ii.  23. 

xviii.  21. 

xix.  12.     - 

xviii.  15. 

XI.  25. 

xxiii.  9.    - 

xviii.  21. 

xiii.  52.     - 

xxiv.  33. 

xix.  1. 

ii.  22.      - 

iv.  13. 

xxi.  7.     - 

xiii.  11. 

xviii.  17,  18. 

xix.  12. 

iii.  17 

vi.  9.     -        - 

v.  24. 


191 

-  22 
136 

-  330 
190 

-  22 
19 

-  22 
352 

-  161 

46 

-  135 
161 

-257 

-  164 

-  159 
161 

-  208 

-  217 
221 

-  7 

-  193 
197 

-  278 
379 

-  346 

-  162 

-  201 

24 
155 
22 

-  22 

-  161 

-  7 

-  7 
7 

-  24 
37 

-  60 

-  62 
67,  91,  94 

-  92 

-  95 


-.     100 

-  119 

-  133 
133 

-  134 
135 

-146 

-  141 

-  143 

-  150 
-152 

-  157 


Matthew  xxvii.  28. 
xxvii.  37. 
xviii.  20. 
xvi.  22. 
xvii.  14. 
xviii.  13. 
vi.  12.     - 
xxviii.  3. 
xii.  8.      - 
v.  34. 
X.  23.     - 
V.  16. 
V.  18.     - 
ii.  16.  &c 
xxvii.  52, 
iii.  16. 
Mark  xiv.  21. 

xi.  30.       - 

ix.  45, 

ix.  47.       - 

iv.  12. 

xiii.  20. 

xiii.  13.     - 

vii.  31. 

XV.  17.     - 

XV.  26. 

xii.  32. 

xvi.  16.     - 

i.  44.      - 

iv.  12. 

i.  10,       - 
Luke  iv.  23. 

i.  38. 

xxi.  8.    - 

ix.  21, 

XV.  18     - 

XX.  4. 

xxii.  19. 

i.  1. 

xxi.  31. 

i.  2. 

xiii.  1. 

iii.  2. 

ii.  36. 

iv.  9. 

xxiii.  11.     - 

xxii.  38.     - 

ii.  32.     - 

xxii.  27.    - 

i.  35.     - 

xxiv.  39.  - 

xxiv.  31. 

ii.  7. 
John  iv.  27.     - 

i.  17. 

X.  5. 


Page 
168 

-  168 
186 

-  193 

-  221 

-  221 
244 

-  269 
278 

-  278 
281 

-  327 
374 

-  378 

-  383 

-  416 

7 

'-     24 

29 

-  29 

-  45 
119 

-  119 
132 

-  168 
268 
242 

-  304 

-  310 

-  310 

-  337 

-  5 

-  5 
7 

-  7 

-  24 

-  24 
18 

88,  120 
119 

-  134 
135 

-  135 

-  149 

-  160 
168 

-168 

-  181 
-191 

-  216 

-  369 
-      370 

-  216 

24 

-  26 
26 


APPENDIX. 

Page 


439 

Page 


T  1  „  -vJH  Q  -        -        -  ^^      Acts  xxviii.  81.         -        -         -      291 

Johnxviu. ».  .232 


xviii.  16 

xiv.  2. 

viii.  13 

ix.  50. 

vii.  52, 

xix.  7.  ^  ...    „ 

j^ix.  2.      -        -  -     163     Romans  iii.  7 

xix.  19. 

ix.  5 

xii.  46. 

i.  1 


67  xii.  19.  -         -         -         -  292 

102  viii.  19.  -         -         -         325 

135  xix.  15.  .         -         -         325 

135  XV.  29.  -         -         -         -  S66 

135  XV.  39.  -         -         -         ^"^'^ 

■  136  ii.  19.  -        -         -         -   384 


168  iii.  5,  7.  -         -         -     45 

.    181  xii.  13.  -         -         -     10^ 

ISl  xi.  13.  -         -         -         141 

183,185  xii.  3.  -         -         "281 


j'  9'_      .         .  -      •  163      1  Corinthians  i.  19 


187  i-  27.    -    -    33 

210  ii.  7.  -    -    -  43 

-212  Lx.  22.    -    -   47 

.  212  xii.    -    -    -  62 

218  V.   -    -    -   84 

.  220  xi.  24.  -    -    -  87 

220  XV.  33.    -    -   91 

220  xiv.  23.  -    -    99 
2'>1  XV.  4.  -    -     101 

221  XV.  -    -    -  104 
.  925  XV.  29.    -    -  105 


ii.  10. 
viii.  56. 
vi.  55. 
ix.  3. 
viii.  5. 
iii.  5. 
iii.  8.  - 
iii.  10. 
ix.  2. 
ix.  34. 

i'  32'  .    -    -    -   337  xii.  28.  -    -    140 

'•/  27    -        -    370  xiv.  29.    -    -  141 

XX.   Z«.  -  ..-,.»  lift 

XX.  17. 


1.9. 
vi.  55 


370  xiv.  27.     -  -       140 

xii  46          -      -           -          181  xiv.  3.          -  -     141 

''''•^^-                                      183  vi.  3.         -  -       141 

212  i.  2.         -  -          153 

212  xii.     -         -  -     175 

ActsxX22.  -        -        -        -        19  iv.l.        -  -       213 

19  XV.  9.         -  -      -^69 

26  XV.  20.  -         -  293 

27  XV.  36.     -  -        293 
39  ii.  3.       -  -           411 


XIV.  18 

XV.  10. 
xii.  21. 
vii 


jv.     - 
XV.  29 


XX.  35 
iv.  32 


2."    ...        -           56                              i.  24.  -         -     197 

-     70      2  Corinthians  xii.  16.  -         -  33 

.   73                             xi.  23.  -         -      33 

-       84                             iii.  6.  -         -  52 

-   93                             viii.  4.  -         -      89 

.        95                             xi.  6.  -         -        100 

xviii.  24.         ...          96                             .xi.l3.  -         -    107 

xix.  13.       -         -        -         -     97                             in.  6.  -         -        140 

i   15          _         _         -         -    104                               m.  6.  -         -         -  211 

XX.  18.         -        -         -           105                             xii.  2  -         -       410 

j   25          _         -         -        -    160                              xu.  7.  -  411 

xi.  26.         -        -        -         -  165                              V.  13.  -         -      411 

xviii.  18.         -         -         -        197                              X.  10.  -         -  411 

iv.  35.         -        -         -        -223                             XI.  6.  -         -       411 

xviii  20          -         -         -        237     Galatians  iv.  9.         -  -  -       26 

xiii  9     '     -         -         -        -  261  ii.  2.      -  -         -           47 

xxviii."  31.         -        -        -      261  i.  17.         -         -         -       62 

j   18  .        -        -        -  269  iv.  24.         -         -         -     72 

xix  15          -        -        -          272  i.  11.  -         -       88 

S  12.     ...         -    273  1.  8.     -  -         -    89 

xi.  24.          ...          289  iv.  24.      -  -        -     100 


440 


Ephesians  iv.  24. 
iii.  1. 
ii.  14.     - 
iv.  13. 
i.  15. 
iv.  9.     - 

Philippians  iv.  8. 
i.  1. 

iii.  2.     - 
i.  15. 

Colossians  ii.  8. 

i.  23.     - 
i.23. 
i.  26.     - 
u.  9. 
i.  23.     - 
i.  24. 

1  Thessalonians  ii.  7. 

2  Thessalonians  ii.  1] 

ii.  2. 
1  Timothy  vi.  20. 

iii.  16.     - 
iii.  13. 
ii.  9. 
iii.  3. 
vi.  3.     - 
i.  3. 
iii.  13. 
i.  15. 


APPENDIX. 

Page 

Pag* 

•  140 

1  Timothy  iv.  8,         -         -         -    327 

195 

Epistle  to  Titus  i.  7.         -        -          90 

366 

Hebrews  xiii.  7.         -         -        -    107 

-411 

xii.  24.         -         -         -    208 

105 

X.  22.         -        -         -      213 

211 

i.  3.         -         -        -         216 

68 

ix.  13.        -        -        -    228 

142 

X.  22.     -         -         -         232 

366 

Epistle  of  James  v.  12.        -        -  157 

366 

ii.  15.         -       287 

37 

1st  Epistle  of  Peter  ii.  2.         -        -  33 

40 

iii.  3.     -         -     95 

■     89 

i.  20.          -        155 

168 

i.  2.       -         -  208 

169 

iii.  15.         -       276 

247 

iii.  13.     -       -   281 

411 

iii.  16.         -      327 

33 

2d  Epistle  of  Peter  iii.  14.       -      -    94 

46 

ii.  4.     -         -    215 

116 

Epistles  of  John— 1st  Ep.  ii.  12.  -  105 

-  37 

3d  Ep.  10.      -     106 

40 

Ist  Ep.  i.  5.     -    181 

-   73 

1st  Ep.  i.  7.     -    282 

95 

1st  Ep.  iv.  3.    -  366 

•  101 

•  Judever.  6.     -        -        -        -      215 

129 

Revelation  xii.  5.         -         -         -  216 

260 

xii.  13.         -        -          216 

142 

xix.  13.     -         -         -  217 

m 


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